I would not like to be in a school where my classes are given in my first language (Spanish). I want to learn the English language as quickly as possible, and it will take a long time for me to do so. My grandparents assume that if we don't use Spanish at home, we are forgetting about our culture. They find it very offensive when my brothers and I chat, and not a word in Spanish is said. First of all, I was not born in this country, but I was here at a very young age, and my three brothers are born in this country. Therefore that gives us the right to communicate in the language we feel more comfortable in. .
When I think about my growing up in California, I remember the many people of different ethnic backgrounds I interacted with. My best fiend in the fourth and fifth grades was from Iran, and I didn't see any difference in ethnicity. I came to New York in 1994, and I changed my way of thinking towards people of different races. I came to distinguish many cultures, which I could not do before because I didn't have my mind set up to differentiate from one culture to another. I was now classified as a minority, and that lowered my self-esteem a little bit. In the essay "Culture Etiquette: A guide", by Amoja Three Rivers indicates that, "[It is] ethnocentric to refer to us as minorities"(502). I have the same opinion because four fifths of this country's population consists of people of color. In fact, Hispanics are the second largest minority group in the country. I don't think it is appropriate to label us as minorities just because, when we are placed side by side to the white people, we are automatically inferior to them. Amoja Three Rivers insinuates that if I have friends or even family members who are racist, then "[I] quietly accept that part of them [I am] giving their racism tacit approval"(504). This statement is simply her opinion, I don't agree with that. I have aunts and uncles who are deeply racist, including an uncle who was beaten on the street because he made a racial slur.