If there was prejudice in the community, neighborhood or school I grew up in in the sixties on the south shore of Long Island, New York, I wasn’t aware of it. I never thought about it, my parents never discussed anyone in a derogatory way when it came to race or color.

Perhaps being born to immigrants in the twenties and thirties they had their share of prejudice in New York City. My dad grew up on the Italian side, my mother the Irish.

Although I was raised in a white neighborhood, we had mixed races at school. I can’t remember anyone giving them a bad time, but that might be because I was teased for being tall as a girl, I was taller than most boys and girls through elementary school. (The teasing took years to overcome.)

I moved to Oregon at twenty one, chose a small, north west coastal town to live in. I lived there for over thirty years, raised my daughter in a small school district mixed with hippies, loggers, farmers, shop owners and fisherman’s children. In spite of the diverse political differences, they got along, loved each other, spending pre-school through twelfth grade together.

My daughter’s first crush was on a basketball player, Clyde Drexler. She tracked his playing for years. Admittedly, I was not conscious of prejudice while my daughter grew up in the eighties. I didn’t realize how isolated she had been to people of color until we went to the Bronx Zoo. My mother still lived in New York at the time, my daughter about six or seven years old, after getting off the sky tram my daughter was in awe and wonder, her first words were” Wow, look at all the black people!” She loved it, my mother was horrified that she spoke so loudly, it was then I realized how segregated she was living on the coast.

By no means do I pretend to paint a perfect lifestyle as a child, or for my daughter, she too had her challenges at school with certain kids. In fact she had some amazing teachers, and some not.

It was the amazing teachers that inspired my daughter. She has many children of various ethnicities she loves and tries to help. She is a middle School teacher in a farming community in Oregon.

Balance is created by allowing. Every ethnic race is equal. Every human has an experience on this planet. We all share emotions of happiness, sadness, pain, joy and love.

If different cultures confuse you, learn about them. Teach your children love.