Crystal Julio
December 12, 2019
Crystal Julio discusses the role race plays in her life. High school is a battle in its own, but the addition of being a minority makes it more difficult.
After her amazing day, Crystal Julio, who identifies as a Mexican-American, reflected on the diversity you can find at West campus, and how being a different color than most has affected her in both good ways and bad.
“I’ve met more Mexican-Americans here than there was in my middle school,” Julio explains. “It’s been very nice.”
That sense of community can be very beneficial for a person who grew up without it. However, students like Julio still have to be aware of their surroundings.
“My parents taught me to just be more careful than you should [have to] be around cops.”
The pattern of having “The Conversation” is a segregated one. Parents of color all around the country may have this talk with their children in order to protect them from the increased likelihood of being both stopped by the police, and killed by the police. According to an analysis of 2015 police killings by the Guardian, “Racial minorities made up about 37.4 percent of the general population in the US and 46.6 percent of armed and unarmed victims, but they made up 62.7 percent of unarmed people killed by police.”
Nonetheless, to other minorities, Julio would like to teach them this.
“A lot of people will judge you off of your ethnicity, but you should just keep being you. Don’t change.”