Diversity in my Neighborhood (Walking Blog #3)

Today for my walking journal, I am told to discuss race and gender in my neighborhood and school. When I first read the prompt, I wasn’t thrilled to have to write on this topic. The reasons for this is that I really don’t focus on race and genders in my everyday life, and having to analyze the different roles of different people based on race and gender made me a little bit uncomfortable.  I mean I really don’t want to seem racist or sexist or anything like that. Another reason why I was reluctant to write on this topic is that I don’t believe that race or gender plays as big of a part in the role of society than it did a couple decades ago. This generation doesn’t think about race and gender roles as barriers as much as people in the past may have.

Once I got outside and actually started to observe people during my walk, I did start to notice some differences in the ways people act based on gender.  I was walking back to my dorm after dark tonight because I was on my way back from a bible study with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and I realized that there were a lot of college aged males sitting by themselves and talking on the phone or doing various activities, but no girls were sitting alone in the dark. This has to do with safety concerns that many females have. Ever since girls turn about five years old, we’re told never to be outside alone at nighttime, because girls need to be afraid of rapists, kidnappers, people with vans, and almost everything else. I think it’s a little silly how girls have to be so worried about their safety all the time, but boys don’t need to worry about it as much.  Another gender specific role I witnessed today was the leaders at the Christian Bible study I went to. There was a male leading it. For some reason, people in the Christian church are somewhat reluctant to having women lead groups that include both men and women. Women are allowed to lead other women, but it isn’t normally accepted for women to lead men. 

One realization that I had while standing in line for the Down Under Café for dinner today is that every time you walk in, a women, usually either of the Asian or Hispanic race will be checking you in with your food swipes. This is interesting, because it made me start to wonder why that is.

Also, as I was leaving the Joe Crowley Student Union this afternoon after I got Keva Juice after my Bio 191 class, I saw a few men of an Asian race talking to one another. This isn’t uncommon, except for the fact that they were speaking a language other than English. I would have to guess that they were either speaking Chinese or Japanese, but I really have no idea. This was intriguing to me because I thought it was interesting that enough people from the same culture and common language go to the same University and know each other. I really didn’t know that there was this much diversity for students to be able to find other students with commonalities who can converse in a language that is rarely spoken here in Reno.

Even though I was somewhat reluctant at first to discuss this topic, I realized that there is a lot that can be learned about an environment just by observing people’s everyday actions.  Topics that you may not think about on a regular basis may cause you to realize new things about your surroundings and can cause you to become more aware of some interesting differences in your neighborhood.