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| View of Baltimore's Inner Harbor from Federal hill. |
I've lived in many places over the course of my short life and I've come to hold great appreciation for the people and the cultures I've come across. It amazed me how people helped us when we were refugees and didn't speak local languages, and, as I got older, it led me to realize that we all share certain core qualities that make us human. So while some people's fighting was chasing us away from our homeland, other people's generosity was easing the burden of our flight.
When I came to Baltimore, I was intrigued by the city's history, its architecture, and a certain air I couldn't quite identify. I feel a certain vibe that draws me to this city, that makes me want to do my part in building it up. While I can't tell what that connection is, there are a few things I love about this city but for the sake of time I'll be focusing on the melting pot that it is.
I myself come from a culturally-varied background. Rwandan, Moldovan, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, etc. I was born in Moldova, then part of the USSR, grew up in Rwanda, and later lived in several African countries as a refugee. Due to my observant and friendly nature, I am able to absorb any culture's traditions and customs in a short time. I believe by learning about other people's way of life I'm able to understand their actions and not be offended by them.
Looking for things to do, I found that there were many ethnic festivals hosted by the city, and I decided to attend as many as I could to learn about those particular cultures and enjoy the food and entertainment. A few things soon became apparent, however. Many of the festivals were demographically-segregated. It was hard to find non-Greeks at the Greek festival, non-blacks at the African American festival, or non-hispanics at the Cinco de Mayo festival. Even St. Patrick's Day parade, the largest parade in the State, does not represent many of the city's cultures in its diversity.
This realization first hit me when I attended the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. parade and noticed it was about 99% African American in both participants and revelers. King's vision was to bring people together, which has happened a lot in society, but seems not enough to attract many of the city's residents to attend a parade in his honor. I don't know the underlying reason and I'm not leaning towards the race factor because race is not an issue based on other festivals/parades I've attended in the city. For example, there were very few African-Americans besides those of African descent at the Africa Fest festival held in the city in 2010.
I saw first hand what can happen when people view themselves as superior and seek to impose that superiority over others through violence. Many friends, family, and neighbors were killed even though they had no choice as to which group they were born into. I, myself, was nearly killed because of this ignorance. So I want to know how best to bring people together, how to make them appreciate their differences while celebrating their similarities. That's one of the reasons I like Baltimore, a chance to learn how best to unite humanity's many subgroups. Whether unity among humans is possible is unknown to me, but I hope to keep learning by observing how the city blends and unites its many cultures.
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