Last month one of my friends had her birthday, which is just 2 days before mine. So, to celebrate we took two of our mutual friends and went to Red Robin for dinner. Two of my friends are Hawaiian and the other is Hispanic, safe to say I am the lightest out of us four. When we were seated at a table, we waited for about five minutes, at which time another group of girls, who were all white, sat at the table next to us. A waitress then asked us if we, my friends and I and the other groups of girls, were together. We answered no and she looked at us and told her colleague, in front of us, that she would help the girls that were sitting next to us, even though we were there before them. My friends and I just looked at each other and one of them said "It's because we're brown."
Before this class I probably wouldn't have looked further into the situation, but as I looked around the restaurant I found that we were surrounded by people lighter than us. Coming from a city that is two-thirds Latino and the other quarter is African American, I haven't really been discriminated against, but coming to Spokane I quickly realized that there is a very different atmosphere when it comes to diversity.
Not only did the waitress disregard my group of friends and I, but throughout the night she kept looking at us, as if we didn't belong there or she was afraid of coming to close to us. Even when we were eventually helped, the waiter continuously looked at me for verification when he asked questions seeing that I was the lightest one at the table.
This was the first time I actually experienced, and felt, what it's like to be discriminated against or be the other group. After this incident, it got me thinking about my mom, who is Latina, and how she would be treated in a city like this.
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