Segregation

Segregation. What makes us segregate? Sitting in one of my seminars today actually made me think about that. As I looked around my seminar group I realised that even though we might not know it, we are segregated. Each row was separated into race, can you believe that? I mean I’m a strong believer of inter-racial relationships and I’m not talking about boyfriend-girlfriend relationships, I’m talking about plain friendships.

The 1st row was all Caucasians, the 2nd row was all Asians and the 3rd row were all black people. That disturbed me because I wondered what the subliminal message was behind the separation. I mean I genuinely like the people in my class so I don’t understand why our class wasn’t mixed up. I mean I don’t think we all sat in those places on purpose, but the fact is that we did sit there.

There are some things we do that we’re not aware of and segregation is one example. Usually my seminar group is mixed so that wasn’t my biggest worry. My worry was in my lectures; I haven’t seen segregation like this ever. My primary school was totally mixed, same goes for my secondary school, college was unbalanced but compared to other people I know, my classes were probably the only example of non-segregation. (Even though I think it’s due to the subjects I studied, I mean who takes French as an A2 Level). So basically through my life I haven’t seen segregation as I’ve seen it in uni. And what baffles me is what brings it on? I mean do people suddenly decide that when they go to uni they’re only going to talk to people who are exactly like them, by that I mean same colour, same origin, same background. Is that what my society has boiled down to? It saddens me but what can I do, I’m not the first to experience it and I doubt that I’ll be the last.

What happened to Martin Luther King’s speech, was it all said in vain? He wanted us to be able to walk side by side and no longer be segregated. But despite his efforts we still are. It might not be as extreme as it was back then, but the main fact is that we are separated. And that’s the problem. I can only imagine how it’s going to be for my children. You think its going to be worse? I hope not. I want my child to grow up with no inhibitions and no acquired stereotype of other cultures but in saying that I think that that might be inevitable. As the days go by and the years roll on, our society’s becoming more and more divided. And it’s that division that scares me.

- Gabrielle