The Rhetorical Lens and its Influence On Me
E. Elrod
Professor McGinnis
English 1101
26 August 2020
Hi, my name is Emma. I am a very outgoing white 16 year old. For example, I have always been the one to talk to other people first, and make new friends everywhere I go. While many of you have moved out and are in college or working a full time job, I have not. I am still in highschool and living with my parents meaning, I have not really been able to go out on my own and see the “real world”. When I started my first job at the age of 15, I noticed I was very quiet and did not go out of my way to make a real connection with my coworkers, which surprised me. Starting my job in a new environment with new people allowed me to grow and learn. I learned that things are not always as easy as they seem especially when you factor in age and race.
I was never really on my own in a sense until I started my job and started seeing my parents less and less throughout the week.This sort of allowed me to branch out and notice the “real world”. When I say the real world I am talking about white privilege, racism, crime, ect.. I never really took into account white privilege, or my age. I never really thought age would be the problem not only at my job, but anywhere. I work in a restaurant and at my job I was the only highschooler and everyone else was 25 years or older. Usually when a guest would come in I would greet them, because I am the host and I would get them seated. I would then ask if I could get anything started for them, like water, or a soda. They would then look around as if to see if there were any adults around. Usually if they notice I looked younger than everyone else they would ask me how old I am. After finding out how young I am they usually do not treat me the same as my other coworkers. They would tend to treat me more like a child instead of treating me like everyone else. Race would also tie into my work place. For example if we were standing in a group and a white guest walked in not only would they address the oldest out of all us but also the white workers. The same goes for African Americans. If an African American came in they would tend to look for an African American worker.
This along with many other experiences have really opened my eyes to see how differently some people treat other people based on age and skin color. Not only was my communication affected, but so was the way I go about things. Now when I go out I am more consciously aware of the way I treat other people around me. I hope that as a nation we can all come to realize there are bigger things in life oppose to race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and mental or physical ability.