Broken Society

  I have always considered myself a successful person, and I have often been recognized for my success which is something I greatly enjoy. However in eighth grade a broken system caused me to lose an opportunity. Every year the counselors would pick the top Hispanic students in the eighth grade and take them on a trip to visit the University of Georgia. UGA tries to diversify their campus by offering this opportunities to outstanding Hispanics, and giving them scholarship and college applications information, and allowing them to tour the school. I was more than confident that I would be chosen to go because I was definitely in the top of my class, and that was including all races, once it was lowered to just Hispanics I'm sure I was like first or second. However I noticed that I wasn't getting called up to meet with the counselors. I assumed that they just hadn't gotten to my name yet or been able to reach me so I just continued on with life and figured I would eventually get chosen. Well the day came when all the chosen students went on the trip and I was never invited. I was shocked to say the least and so were my teachers and classmates, I started to doubt my abilities and was depressed most of the day. Anyways later I found out that, while I hadn't been called up a Filipino friend of mine had been invited but she told them she wasn't Hispanic so she wasn't taken. That immediately made my suspicious and I put two and two together and realized I wasn't invited because they assumed I was white! When I talked to the counselor about it she even told me it was only for Hispanic students, at which point I informed her I was Hispanic but by then it was too late. This fits right under Godin's "I didn't know" model because the fact that I don't fit the stereotypical Hispanic profile, therefore preventing them from knowing my race caused me to miss out on an opportunity to prepare for my future. I'm sure the counselors were trying to save time by not looking at records but if they had looked they would have known I was qualified rather than just assume that since I "look" white and "act" white I was white. This actually happens to me a lot, I am constantly having to explain to people that I am Hispanic, but this is one of the few times when I have actually lost something because of people's assumptions.
   That's one of society's greatest problems, stereotypes and assumptions. I believe schools should try to teach our students to not judge or assume about others, because in today's global age we all need to learn to be open-minded about different people. Globalization means future generations will interact with diversity even more than we do today, and as educators schools need to invoke students with the social skills necessary to succeed in a global market and not categorize people through inaccurate generalizations and stereotypes. I believe it's human nature to judge and try to categorize strangers however, people need to learn to ignore that part of the brain and to not let first impressions inhibit them from learning the truth about a person. Tolerance is an important key to success and values like that are best taught at young ages and the best way to become tolerant is to become informed. If schools taught more about other cultures then students would be more likely to accept them because it would be familiar to them.
  I am not implying that I was judged or discriminated against, I know it was an honest mistake. However, the system was broken because information was lacking, so an assumption based on a stereotype to save time was made.