Cultural diversity is everywhere. Ever since I was a young kid playing sports I was introduced to many different cultures that had various backgrounds. Hostile confrontation was rare between the races or cultures that I knew of around the town of Ft. Myers Beach, but there were always those few incidents that you would hear about between rednecks and black people. Like how Ruth McBride was taunted or robbed when she would ride her bike through a bad part of town. I encountered cultural diversity through sports, friends that I made in grade school, and most of all during football throughout high school. .
At the age of five, I was already making friends or being introduced to kids of different cultural backgrounds. Staying at my friends houses I was introduced to different methods of living and prayer which was odd for me at first but I became used to the different atmosphere. In the book "Color of Water" Ruth had to keep a relationship she had with a black man away from her parents because the difference in her father's religious belief kept her in fear from what her father might do if he found out. I personally never had to deal with racism or hatred in my family. It was never and issue that we brought up or talked about when I was young or they just kept it away from me.
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It wasn't until grade school at St. Francis when I realized that there was a lot more cultural diversity than what I thought existed. Racism was brought to a new more fearful meaning. I saw it appear frequently in sports and in different areas where my friends and I would hang out. Also different groups started to form good and bad. I was never one to join these groups or cliques. I stayed out of them and tried to stay friends with everyone without being called a part of a certain group.