Close Reading

My address is at 41 09 vernon island city apt 4 d and my neighbor at 4c does the same all the same thing I have call the police and housing and everyone and in the way to have them in court so know how it is ok my neighbor is crazy this is all they do the man in that house is mad and crazy so I just call the police in need of help to put this in the news ps these neighbor s need mental help

As a Mexican American I have faced all types of racism from people of different races, including my own. I lived in Mexico for a while when I was young and would get bullied by kids who knew I was born in the U.S. Teachers also treated me different; some treated me worse than they treated the other kids, and others favored me because I was American. When I moved to Philadelphia I attended a school that was predominantly black and asian. I was the only hispanic in my class. At the time Spanish was my main language and my English was “rusty,” which led to constant bullying from classmates. They would call me “dookie face,” tell me to “go back to my country,” and even had some girls put gum on my hair. I would cry every day. I later on moved to Chicago to an area that was mostly hispanic, and that didn’t stop the bullying, either. After I finally refined my English, I no longer wanted to speak Spanish unless it was to my parents. Yes, I guess the constant bullying pushed me to feel like I had to separate myself from my hispanic heritage. When my hispanic classmates spoke to me in Spanish I only responded in English, which would make them mad and they would think that I thought I was “better than them.” Anyway, that was long ago and now as an adult I can reflect on these things so that I don’t make the same mistakes. I get along with everyone and the only thing that changes how I feel about someone is their character, not their appearance.