There Goes the Neighborhood

     Have you ever had a new student join your class? Especially if they are from another country? Have you ever noticed how your classmates react? They bombard the new kid with all types of questions, "where are you from?" "what's it like over there?" "what kind of culture is over there?". And when we receive items from other countries or even other states we over hype it. Just because it's foreign we think that it is special. People are innately curious about new things. We see this throughout history. The Native Americans; when the Europeans first came over, they thought that the gods were coming to Earth. They valued anything they got from the Europeans. They traded their food and materials for junk, broken glass, plates etc. Sadly our curiosity gets the better of us at times, and like the old saying goes, "curiosity killed the cat."

   And it did. The Native Americans were nearly wiped out by the Europeans. By the time Christopher Columbus died, historians believe that he was responsible for the death of over half a million natives. Chicago has a population of around 2.715 million people. Now think of almost a 5th of that population is gone because of one man. One out of every five people you know are dead. Neighborhoods are literally gone, wiped out. 

     But what happens nowadays? Let's put this in to some context. Let's say a close-nit neighborhood in the suburbs, all of the same religion, all of the same ethnic roots. But what would happen if a new family come? A family with a different set of beliefs and a different set of origins. What would happen? Well a clash in culture of course. People don't like new things. Sure if it's little things it's fine but when a giant change occurs, people start to get tense. In school it's fine because school is a mixing pot of people, but when it happens so close to home, you start to become uneasy. The kids would probably get along fine unless the parents say something, but it's the parents who will have a problem. The parents have been living a certain way for a long time and when something disrupts it, naturally people become upset. They start to argue who is better or why others should change. They want the different people to be just like them. They criticize each other's religion. They bash each other's Gods, food, and  style choice. Of course, there are exceptions, they all pretend they're friends but we all know they talk behind each other's back.

    We saw this type of conflict with the Europeans and the Native Americans. The Europeans saw something different and decided that they should change. Both sides attacked each other, saying which way of living was better or whose morals are better. But, as we know, the Natives didn't win that fight.