Los Gitanos

There is a minority group here in Spain called Los Gitanos.  In English, they are known as the gypsies.  They are a cultural group originally from India and there are populations of the gypsies all over the world.  Here, they make up less than 1% of the population and face heavy discrimination.

In my first Multicultural Society and Education class in September, my teacher began the semester with a lesson about discrimination.  We determined that we discriminate against people who are different than us because we don't understand them or we are afraid of them.  We are afraid of what we don't understand.  My class, as a whole, decided that discrimination is a horrible thing.

Two weeks ago, we began our discussion about the gypsies and my teacher asked us to talk about some of the traits of a gypsy.  There was nothing good said.  My classmates called them dirty, poor, thieves.  I was the only one who knew anything about their culture.  My teacher was surprised when I knew so many things..when I knew the positives.

As we talk more and more about the stereotypes and issues with the gypsies, I watch my classmates turn mean, nasty and rude.  It's hard to watch because I have befriended some of them. These girls welcomed me into their group. I a foreigner.  I do not fully speak their language.  I am not a citizen of Spain.  I am not from this continent.  Why do you welcome someone who isn't from this side of the world but not someone who lives in your same city?

Their blindness sickens me.  They have had these stereotypes drilled into their head and they cannot see past them.  It makes me realize how far America has actually come.  When I am in class and we talk about the discrimination of the African Americans or Native Americans, no one scrunches their nose and calls them dirty.  Yes, we do have a ways to come until racism is erased from our society, if it is ever erased.

I give my teacher credit.  I didn't like her at first but now I look up to her.  She is trying so hard to make them understand that this group of people is not what everyone makes them to be.  She assigns videos which I know none of them watch and she has discussions about it which they whisper through.  Not all of them are blind to this but a lot of them are.  My teacher is trying to make a change, to make this world a place where discrimination doesn't exist, and I look up to her for it.