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Race and My Community

Janet Dyar

Axia College
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I live in the city of Midland, Texas. My neighborhood is contains mostly middle class

families, although just a five mile distance from my neighborhood lies the poorer part of town.

Midland, Texas is a well known as an oil producing town, yet is home to many people from

various socioeconomic backgrounds and faces the same issues of any growing city.

Midland is home to people of different ethnicities. Many are African Americans, Whites,

and Hispanics. Although these are the most prevalent ethnic groups in Midland, I see many other

ethnic groups as well. Even though there are a very high percentage of white people in my

neighborhood, there is also a small amount of subordinate groups. Midland itself is not quite as

diverse in population statistics as other Texas towns. According to information provided by the

United States Census Bureau, the following chart represents racial statistics for Midland in 2000

(2009).



  

  

 
 

White
African American
 Hispanic
Native American
  Asian
 Other
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The majority of Midland citizens are White Non-Hispanics like me, but my immediate

neighborhood is made up of a mixture of African Americans and Hispanics and Whites. I also

have a few Puerto Rican families in my neighborhood

Because many Puerto Ricans have physical characteristics similar to those of Hispanic

Americans, it is sometimes hard to distinguish a person¶s ethnicity just by looking at them. I

have a friend who is Puerto Rican yet looks like a Hispanic American. She is often spoken to in

Spanish by people thinking she is Hispanic. In my neighborhood, the people I see can sometimes

resemble me, yet be of a different ethnicity. Most of the time however, they look just like I do.

The City of Midland has a program in place called West Texas Opportunities, Incorporated

(WTOI). The mission statement of WTOI is ³To help the communities we serve mobilize

resources to combat poverty. This can be achieved most efficiently through involvement of the

disadvantaged in planning, policy-making and the operation of the programs that involve their

lives. Also, to provide through action and policy the objective to increase the capacity of the

individuals, groups and companies affected by poverty to deal effectively with their own

problems in order to become self-sustained members of the community and society in which they

live´. (West Texas Opportunities, n.d.). The WTOI has several programs within its core that

have been designed to aid the community¶s poorest residents.

The city of Midland has a high rate of drug abuse and is referred to by other Texans as the ³Meth

Capital of Texas.´ Every few months the leaders in my community will become embarrassed by

the amount of drug and gang activity going on in my city, especially when former President and

First Lady George and Laura Bush are visiting. They will provide more police and sheriff¶s

deputies temporarily to clean up the neighborhoods. However, this is just a temporary solution.
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Because my neighborhood is a predominantly white neighborhood means that community

leaders tend to do more for residents on this side of town.

Within my neighborhood, I am not treated any differently because my racial makeup is in

the majority. There was a time when I have been treated differently by members of subordinate

groups in my community. Recently I went into a small clothing store in my city more commonly

frequented by minorities. When I walked in, I needed some help finding and item in my size, but

was openly ignored by the sales staff. A few moments later my best friend and her grandchildren

walked in and greeted me. My friend and her grandchildren are African American and the

children call me ³Nanny Janet.´ It was only then I immediately received the help I needed when

they realized I was friends with this Black woman. Reverse discrimination does occasionally

happen in my neighborhood as it does in neighborhoods throughout the United States. However,

most of the time there are few problems with reverse discrimination in my town.

Midland does not have a very diverse group of community leaders. Although most

ethnicities are represented, the majority of city leaders are of White, non-Hispanic backgrounds.

The City Council members contain two African Americans and one Hispanic American. In my

neighborhood, there are Mexican restaurants next door to Asian restaurants. Midland has a

couple of hair salons that cater to African Americans and others who cater to every ethnicity. We

have one grocery store that caters to a large Hispanic market, but only a few smaller stores that

serve the Asian community. The rest are large chain stores aimed at the white consumer.

The face of the local media is just as diverse as Midland itself. When watching local news

programs, there are several ethnicities being represented. All of the local news stations have a

fairly equal mix of representatives from the various ethnic groups in the Midland area. The
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media is usually fairly objective in their news reports. The neighborhood I live in has a very low

crime rate, so it is uncommon to see my neighborhood portrayed in local news reports. The local

media does a good job of representing people like me, both in their news reports and in the faces

that I see on the news.

Even though Midland does not have a diverse community leadership, the needs of minorities

still need to be addressed. Most minorities and immigrants still have limited access to health and

mental care. In my community, minorities often hold the lowest paying jobs and are rarely in

positions of authority. Many of the minorities have appeared to have little education and those

that do face a poor quality of education. Midland has relatively few programs in place to address

these educational needs of the adults.

I spoke with Rene Cox regarding issues facing minorities in my community. Rene is the

wife of an associate minister of a local African American church and she heads a neighborhood

outreach program. She has lived in the community for nearly over thirty years. Mrs. Cox stated,

³While Midland is not very culturally diverse; the city sometimes overlooks those who have the

most pressing needs´ (personal communication, May 1, 2010). Mrs. Cox went on to explain that

the City of Midland has some really good ideas on paper, but has a poor history of implementing

them.

Mrs. Cox says that their church neighborhood is filled with gangs, drug dealers, and

homeless people. This particular neighborhood is also home to some of Midland¶s poorer

citizens. She says she can look out her window and see homeless people wandering about at all

hours of the day. According to Mrs. Cox (personal communication, May 1, 2010), this has been a

normal occurrence for several years with no end in sight. Mrs. Cox also discussed the plight of
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senior citizens living in this community. She stated that minority seniors in this neighborhood

have less access to needed help than in other communities (personal communication, May 1,

2010). Many seniors in this area can barely afford the high rents charged by the few senior

communities and many of the apartment complexes. Most poor seniors are living in small

apartments or homes with their children and grandchildren. According to Mrs. Cox, the

community leaders and activists need to be doing more to improve conditions for our seniors and

minorities living in this area (personal communication, May 1, 2010).

The required readings did present information about me. I am White Non-Hispanic, a

member of the dominant group. I also come from a very diverse cultural background. I can trace

my ancestors¶ ethnicities to German, Irish, and Native American. I learned quite a bit about the

various ethnicities that make me who I am.

One of the main concepts I found from the text that relates mostly to race, would be one that

I see in my community. Total deprivation is a concept very familiar to some in my community.

The concept of total deprivation according to Richard Schaefer is ³the combination of current

discrimination with past discrimination created by poor schools and menial jobs´ (2006). A dual

labor market is also prevalent within my community. The majority of white collar and

management jobs are held by the dominate group, but many members of subordinate groups find

themselves stuck in the lower paying menial jobs.

Public schools in this community face du jour segregation. Most of the schools in my

neighborhood have an unbalance between minority and white students. Some of the schools have

lower than average enrollments of African American and Hispanic students. A few of the schools

in my community in the poorer neighborhoods are performing at or below state standards, yet
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these are the schools that received the most teacher lay-offs recently. According to Rene Cox, the

schools in these neighborhoods received less funding than schools in the more affluent

neighborhoods and received more budget cuts as well (personal communications, May 1, 2010).

Many changes can be made to reverse the inequities within my community. One of the most

important decisions should be to start with the public school system. The city should redesign

school zones to help make the schools more racially equal and stop cutting the budget and letting

go of educators in the poorer schools. These are the schools that need the most resources poured

into them. Another way to change inequities within the community of Midland would be to

encourage more businesses not related to the oil industry to move into the area. The city should

spend more money to clean up the area to make it more attractive to business owners. The city

and community members should be able to come together to provide services to the homeless

and poor that are so common in the southern area of Midland. My main believe is more should

be done to improve education in Midland¶s poorer neighborhoods. Change starts with the

younger generation. We need to provide all children with the same opportunities regardless of

what area they live in and what their ethnicity is. Today¶s children will become tomorrow¶s

leaders. It is not only the rich or privileged children who will grow up to change our world for

the better.

The city of Midland, Texas is my home, my community and my neighborhood. This is the

area in which I spend my money and live my daily live. Although it is not a large metropolitan

city, it still faces many of the same cultural issues and will probably continue to face these issues

in years to come. I have chosen to live here and will continue to do what I can to make sure this

community continues to improve.

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References

(N.D.). West Texas Opportunities, Inc. Retrieved on May 5, 2010, from

http://gowto.org/index.php

Schaefer, R. (2006). Racial and ethnic groups (10th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Prentice Hall

United States Census Bureau. (2000). U.S. Census Bureau American Fact Finder. Retrieved on

May 5, 2010 from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable