When I was growing up, some of the Hispanic kids would call me "Chino Cochino " thinking I got a cool nickname but later I found out it meant dirty Chinese boy. There will always be discrimination in society whether you're in school or at work. Discrimination affected my way of choosing certain type of friends. As I got older, I started to learn about discrimination and didn't take it as a negative impact on my life. We can try to help our kids to learn not to discriminate, but the stereotypes and the racial slurs will always be in this society.
I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico where the dominant race was Hispanics and Caucasians. Being the only Korean kid in the class, I didn't really come around any major racial conflicts. My best friend at the time was a Hispanic boy who always watched over. I would get into little fights since they were bullying the only Asian kid, but my best friend always helped me out. I didn't really take it in a negative way until I moved to Los Angeles, California for 4th grade. I lived in Korea town which had a pretty big Korean community. When I started elementary school, all the schools were full so my parents couldn't send me to where my church friends went. I went to a school outside of Korea town where the ethnicity of the students was mostly Hispanics. I encountered my first racial comment there, Chino Cochino meaning dirty Chinese boy. As I went through 4th and 5th grade, the discrimination affected me on certain group of friends I chose to be around. I started to be around more of my Korean community. When I got to middle school, I only had all Korean friends because I felt comfortable being around my own ethnicity. I had Korean neighbors and went to a Korean church which made most of friends Korean. We would always get into fights with Hispanics for calling us Chino Cochino. As I grew up, it made me look down on other races and thought Korean was the most dominant race.