looking back

hearing the holocaust speaker was certainly something. i've heard a similar story...a woman who escaped communist china as a teenager, but to hear something that americans have put such an effort in education towards was a strange experience. i can't even begin to imagine what that woman went through, nor do i believe i will ever be able to imagine it.
i realized for the first time in 19 years that my own grandmother was in germany when this was happening. she doesn't like to talk about her childhood very much, so i haven't had the opportunity to hear her story. hearing this woman say that once her generation dies, there will be no one else to tell the story first hand, and it made me realize that i should talk to my grandmother and hear my family's history while i have the chance.
as far as racism goes, yes, it's a big problem. but as i sit here in my white skin and middle class status at my small school in southern california, i don't think i can fully understand the size of the problem. i see stuff all over the news about discrimination and i hear it all the time, but to be honest, the amount that i've been affected by it is so small. i think it's really been brought to a lot of attention but i don't know how to move forward in stopping it.