Age and Race Conflicts in Chester, New York

I live in a small town community surrounded by onion fields. There is a trolley that runs about 3 times a day, and the closest store is a 45 minute walk from my house. After 10 o' clock at night there are hardly any cars on the streets, and even less people. In my community there are conflicts between not only race, but age as well.

I am a 25 year-old Caucasian female living in Chester, New York. I am five feet tall; I have red hair and hazel eyes. "87.2 percent" of the population in Chester is Caucasian. (Population overview,). In my town the largest majority in age is "33.8 percent" (Population overview). I belong to both of these majorities, but as a female I am in the minority. A little more than half of Chester's population is male. I am a very eclectic person and have interesting tastes, so I do not always blend in with my community. I mainly wear the type of clothes that some would stereotype as a "hippie", but I do not label myself. I would say that most members of my community do not look like me. Even the people in my age group do not look much like me in my community. I find that people of similar age to me dress very plan or dress in relation to what music they listen too. Amongst my age group most people listen to metal or hip hop, and dress according to the fashion of the music scene they follow.

The leaders within my community do not seem very fond of people like me. The leaders seem to be older and bias to the youth. I believe it is worse for younger people in my community because they are definitely a target of the police. When I first moved to this neighborhood, I was pulled over by a cop while I was walking home. It was late at night, and I was alone. The cop pulled up slowly next to as I continued walking. He had his lights on and started to ask me questions. I could not believe I was being pulled over; I was not even in a car. After a while I realized that it was normal for the police in Chester to trouble the youth. I saw a friend walk 2 miles home in his socks because the police took away his rollerblades. He had stopped by the mall to meet up with some of his friends. It was summer time, and he decided to rollerblade instead of walk. He ended up walking home in his socks and paying 50 dollars to get his rollerblades back. I was 20 years-old at the time of this, but even to this day the police in my area have a habit of paying much more attention to people who look like me than other people. I also find that in my community people of races other than Caucasian seem to receive more attention as well. The Chronicle is a local newspaper that contains the list of people arrested by the police within a certain amount of time. The most recent police blotter shows 10 different arrests and 8 out of 10 of these arrest were of people between the age of 18 and 34 (The Chronicle, 2007). 7 out of the 8 people appearing in the blotter were in their twenties (The Chronicle, 2007). Half of the people arrested, for that week, appeared to be of a different race than Caucasian (The Chronicle, 2007).

I find that other members of the community are also not so friendly to people who look like me and are in my age group. The other day my boyfriend and a couple of our friends went to the local McDonald's restaurant to get breakfast. My friends have a similar appearance to me. Some of them have dread locks, and they wear a lot of tie-dye and patchwork clothes. They chose to use the drive through and upon checking their order they found it was incomplete. When they told the clerk at the window they received an attitude instead of the rest of the order they had paid for. My friends waited for the drive through worker to finish completing their order. Eventually they received their food, but not without a hassle. After they were treated badly at the McDonald's restaurant they drove across the street to the gas station to get gas before they came home. As they were parked at the pump the local police pulled up and started asking them questions. The officer requested identification from my friends. When my boyfriend came out of the store and saw what was happening he asked the police officer if there was a reason they were being detained. He snidely replied that they should not sit so long in the McDonald's driveway. They were informed that the restaurant workers had called the police department and reported them. My friends were simply trying to purchase food. They had no ill intentions and yet because of their ages, which ranged from 21 to 27, and the way they look they were targeted by the police and the member's of the community.

My texts for school contain some information about people like me. I find that there is more information on the subject of gender than there is on being Caucasian. I feel that since Caucasian is not a minority it is not really discussed in our texts. I do not have work manuals; I work as a waitress for a privately owned Italian restaurant. I also do not feel the local media represents people like me. I believe the local media is mainly tailored to families and children. I think the local newspaper, the Times Herald Record, mainly caters to people with children in school. Some of the main news headlines from the Times Herald Record today are "Middletown H.S. teacher Peter Panse sues district over suspension Warwick welcomes famed artist's work" (Times Herald Record, 2007). Even though the media in my area covers mostly crime, and school related issues I think it also represents the art in my community well.", "Family literacy day today at Twin Towers Middle School ", and "Sixth-graders charged after throat slashing plot uncovered " (Times Herald Record, 2007). These examples illustrate the common themes in the media; although, I find that the art community is also represented in the media as well. I am very interested in art in my community, and I find the newspaper helpful when looking for art events. Another headline in today's newspaper states, "

The recently elected mayor in my community is Philip P. Valastro. I believe that his background is different from mine. I did not attend a catholic high school or the military. I do think that we agree on the concern of tax increases in our community. Valastro states that, "As in any household, our bills are going through the roof" when referring to the town of Chester (Times Herald Record, 2007 March 17). I agree that the taxes in our community are outrageous. Valastro says he would like to build a new town hall; he feels it is too small to accommodate the community. I do not consider a new town hall to be necessary. I feel that there are other more important structures that could be maintained. He does state that he would "construct a building that is not fancy, but modest" which I feel is important (Times Herald Record, 2007, March 17). I do not think it is essential to spend too much of the budget on making a lavish town hall. For the most part we are not similar, but we agree on one thing. I do not feel that minority groups' interests are represented within my community. I also do not feel there are any programs that really support minorities in my community.

If I could resolve any inequities within my community I would chose to take some of the fund away from the police department. I consider that although there is crime in my community it is not that high. I also feel that the police department is over staffed. I think this is the possible reason why they feel the need to target people in my age range, as my age range has the highest percentage of people in my community. If I could I would reallocate these funds to help with the taxes. The taxes in my town are overwhelming. The higher rates of taxes are due to the price of gas and electric. If I could apply some of the police budget to these areas, taxes on homes would go down. This would be good for my community because people would save money and be able to put it back into our economy. This would help local small businesses. It would also help people be able to put their money into productive means. It will also increase the rate of new homeowners by making it more affordable.

There are many good parts of my community and there are a lot of conflicts. I believe that if the community was more accepting and supportive of the youth it would be better overall.

References

Population over view. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2007, from http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/popInfo.php?locIndex=273396

The Chronicle. (May 10, 2007) Retrieved May 11, 2007, from http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2007/05/12/the_chronicle/news/6.txt

The Times Herald Record. (May 12, 2007). Retrieved May 12, 2007, from http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS

The Times Herald Record. (March 17, 2007). Meet Greenwood Lake and Chester Canidates. Retrieved May 8, 2007 from http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/COMM/703170301/-1/NEWS04