Antonio Solano

Professor Malvin
English 114B
30 April 2015
Racial Borders in LA
Many people talk about racial division till this day like if it was a joke and like if it really
was not happening. Calling places like Little Tijuana because it looks like something Mexico
would look like or calling a neighborhood China just because a lot of Chinese people tend to live
in that neighborhood. Not only is there racial division but there is also division based on wealth.
Like for example, just because there is a house on Rodeo drive most people automatically think
it is a rich white family that owns it. While most of the time it is true (joke), not always is it a
rich white family behind the doors. Many times stereotypes are placed to each neighborhood and
makes people around the world or even different cities think they are true. A change needs to
come to stop these stereotypes from getting spread around and to actually make them true. The
only way to really start change is to change oneself. So that means to not start off big such as a
city like Los Angeles but scale down to a small neighborhood such as East LA or Crenshaw. The
first way to initiate change is to actually make people aware that it is true and that it is actually
happening. The second way would be to name a couple small neighborhoods to show how it is

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happening close to their homes and how they are stereotyped. The final way would be to tell
people what are the possible options to make the change happen.
If one goes around and ask many people what racial diversity is and if it really is a thing,
many people would probably tell you what is but would tell you its not happening right now and
that is was only a thing in the past.. According to the Merriam-Webster website racial means
relating to or based on race, and diversity stands for the quality or state of having many different
forms or types. In this day and age racial diversity happens in cities all around the United States,
from coast to coast. It happens almost ever city, even in the city you are in. Although Los
Angeles has its neighborhoods where it is racial mixed, it has its other neighborhoods where it is
the majority one race. Some few neighborhoods that would be of great example would be the
neighborhood of East Los Angeles with a 96.7% of people being Latino. Another example of a
neighborhood in Los Angeles that is racially diverse would be Crenshaw with a majority of
71.3% being black, according to LA Times. Even though some neighborhoods may be racial
mixed, that does not cover up the neighborhoods that are not racial mixed. It makes it easier for
people who like to discriminate give these neighborhoods certain labels and make them look like
places that they are not. That is one of the reasons on why racial diversity needs to stop, so
people who live in a certain neighborhood are not placed with a certain title, which they are not.

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There are many things one can do to stop things like this from happening. Many people
do not know that something as simple as being nice can make a huge difference in racial
diversity. It all begins with someone being rude to some one of a different race and it can
snowball from there and become into a huge problem. Another thing some people do not
understand is that for change to happen, it has to come from one self at first. Most people try to
change a huge problem and almost never succeed and what people need to try at first is change
on a small scale and then move on upwards. For one to help in racial diversity does not mean to
try to change a whole city and tell them to stop them from being so segregated, for it to begin on
changing first come themselves and then their peers. Like Gandhi once said, Be the change that
you wish to see in the world. Once there is a group with the same mentality then it can only get
better from there and grow to actually make a change.
Moving away from racial diversity in neighborhoods in Los Angeles onto a more current
topic that has to do with race would have to be about the Baltimore riots currently happening.
One might say while reading that what does that have to do with the overall meaning of this
writing, but you can say that it all in a way connects to it. When it comes to racial diversity in
Los Angeles one only hears bad stuff about Latinos and African Americans, and about the white
people you rarely hear anything about them and if you do its only good stuff. In the Baltimore
Riots its people of the race that get discriminated the ones that are protesting/rioting. Even

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though people may say that rioting is not the way to do it and this and that, but its the only way
to really be heard. The people of not only Baltimore but also everyone who is supporting them
are standing up for their people to actually make change happen. They are the people who are
sick and tired of having titles placed on them, tired of being considered as thug just because of
were they live or how they look. One can complain that they are destroying their city and are not
doing any good, but if you can not find another way that is going to change America on how they
think about minorities, then you should either join them or let the people that actually want
change fight for their change.
Racial diversity is very common in big cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, and it
also happens in smaller cities such as Ventura or Thousand Oaks. For cities like these or
neighborhoods that lay inside these cities, in some parts they first built up with only one race and
as these places expanded people made it seem like if they were only for one race. Nowadays
some people call these places such as a black neighborhood or Mexico Town only because
that is how these place were believed to be built as. Racial diversity has to be a thing to be
known about for stereotypes like those above can stop. Also to let people know that just because
people call the neighborhoods certain nicknames, does not mean that they are just for those
people or type and is open to any one of any color or race. Also to show that everyone in reality
is created the same and no one is different just because of the city or neighborhood one lives in.

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Evaluation Letter
The process of writing this essay was difficult overall. I would not blame the difficulty on
the prompt of this essay but on my self. With every essay I have difficulty writing and trying to
connect it all together. Over all the prompt was very good and was explained very well. Thankful
for the prompt there was many subjects one can write about, but that also made it difficult
because there was so many things to choose from and picking one was hard. One problem for me
was actually narrowing down the topic I choose. Another problem I had in writing this essay was
fitting the length requirement. For me this has always been a problem, when it comes down to
writing multiple pages I struggle because I always think I always repeat my self and end up
boring the reader. Overall I think I deserve around a mid C because I know I did not put in as
much effort as I wanted to. Even with the extra time you gave all of us it still kind of stumped
and I did not know what to write about. That being so I am kind of disappointed in my self
because I just got over whelmed with other things going around in my life. Thank you professor
for making this essay and the whole class over all as smooth as possible. It was an honor being
one of your students and I had a lot of fun in your class. Thank you.

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Works Cited
"Diversity." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times, 2015. N. pag. Diversity
Ranking. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.
"Diversity." Merriam-Webster. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
"Racial." Merriam-Webster. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.