FREE ESSAY ON PREJUDICE

PREJUDICE

PREJUDICE
Are you prejudice? Yeah, that's exactly what I thought, until I arrived here at Hampton.
Prejudice is simply the act of pre-judging someone before you really get to know him or
her. You should never judge a book by its cover. In most cases your first impression of
someone is based upon appearance, and the first impression is the one that counts. Since
my arrival at Hampton University, I've met many different people from not only the U.S.,
but all over the world. Every different area, or city, or country has its own local
culture. They all dress different, they have their own slang, and they enjoy various
foods. But after you scratch beneath the surface, you notice that everyone is
fundamentally the same.
The first person I was able to observe was of course, my roommate. Justin is from
Baltimore County, Maryland. My first impression was that we had absolutely nothing in
common. I consider myself to be the typical North Carolina country boy. I don't speak
with correct grammar, my room is never clean and I don't iron my clothes. Initially, I
took him for a spoiled prep. He spoke with a faultless dialect. It was almost regal. It
seemed, by the way he and his parents unpacked, that he was a completely organized, and
proficient person. His clothes perfectly draped his closet. His desk was always ideally
arranged. He struck me to be the exact opposite of myself. But as we began to talk and
interact with each other, I learned that we were shockingly parallel. We're the only two
humans that enjoy Quaker Instant oatmeal. We share the same passion about music, females,
and even life.
Because I smoke marijuana, it was inevitable for me to meet some other potheads. The
first was "E" from Long Island. From his appearance I took him to be a New York Rasta.
His mop-like dreadlocks looked as though they had never been washed. He was cloaked in
baggy urban clothing. But despite all of this he spoke like a "California surfer dude".
This was so funny to me. It was like God had made a mistake and given him some white
boy's voice. He was the first guy besides my roommate that I considered a friend. Daily
we regulated the cafeteria, and strutted the campus meeting girls. But the more we hung
out together the more I realized he wasn't the person I initially took him for.
Next we have Chare. She's from Los Angeles, California. I met her through "E". By her
clothing I figured her to be a rich girl from the valley, but of course I wrongly
categorized her as well. She conversed with a confident, ghetto dialect. She never bit
her tongue for anyone. This is where I was first exposed to west coast slang. Her speech
was straight from Boyz in the Hood. I quickly became her "homie" and we spent a lot of
time "kickin' it". As I really got to know her, I learned how similar our lives really
were. We both loved the same movies, and had interest in the same activities. 
Eric is from Queens Bridge, New York. He stays next door to me. The second night I was
here, I had to go and ask him and his roommate to turn down their music. They didn't like
this very much at all. So I guess we started of on the wrong foot. Eric has a smart
mouth. I saw the way he talked to other guys in our hall, and frankly I didn't like him
very much. We didn't speak if we saw each other around campus, so of course I didn't
consider us to be friends at all. The weekend of the first home football game my little
brother came to visit me. I took him to the game because there wasn't anything else to
do. I gave him a ten-dollar bill to go and get something from the concession stand. He
returned with tears in his eyes. He explained to me that someone had told him they would
buy his food and bring it to him, but that he couldn't find the guy. I went down to
ground level to find this guy. The way my brother described him, he probably was a HU
student. After about 5 minutes of searching I noticed a crowd beginning to form about 15
yards to my right. It was a fight. I went to make sure that it wasn't anybody I knew or
ran with. As it turned out, it was Eric and someone about twice his size. When I arrived
back to dorm, I went to Eric's room to see how bad the damage was. This is where the
story gets interesting. Apparently Eric was seated behind me the entire time at the
football game and I didn't know it. He was talking to girl at the concession stand and
had noticed my little brother talking to another student. He assumed that I knew the guy
and didn't think anything else of it until he saw my brother franticly explaining to me
what had happened. On his way out he saw this guy and approached him, the guy said
something smart, and Eric popped him. From that moment on Eric has been my best friend
here. 
Maybe I just don't posses the ability to accurately analyze a person by his or her
appearance. Now that I've been here a while it has become easier to recognize where an
individual is from by their appearance. I've learned to translate their local tongue to
ordinary English. But that is as deep as I can go on first impression. By observing other
students you can learn many things. Not only about others, but I feel as though I've
learned more about myself in the first month here than my entire past existence up to
that point. It is my personal opinion that this is what really makes the college
experience so valuable.