Immigrants

- by Yana K, age 16

Immigrants don't get respected. I wonder why, do you?
They're just like normal people.
But why do we get treated differently?

Some say their feelings have been hurt,
and some say it has been physically.
But I say: why? Are we different?

Maybe the difference is color,
or accent that you don't understand.
But aren't we still the same people
in heart and in the brain?

Why can't you respect us?
Why can't you just be nice?

I guess it's because we're immigrants.
Is that why?

I want others to see...

by Y.K., age 15

I want others to see our Slavic Community as a nice and proper community. I would hate for others to see our community as druggies and as stupid people. I want to see my community as smart and caring people.

It's easy to tell that our community is turning into someone else, they don't want to keep their natural looks and languages, they want to be like someone else. They want to look like someone else.

Our community is hard to understand, because there are so many of us that are different, and most people when they see one Slavic person that has made a mistake, was rude or was smoking into peoples faces, they think that every Slavic person is like that. That's why some people say that Americans don't like Russians. Well, I wonder why? Because one person showed a bad image of our community. And then the rest of us have to suffer from the dislike and hate.

I want our community to change their ways, to be themselves and not try to be like someone else. If we showed the caring and smart people that we are and the true us, I bet that people would really enjoy our humor and really be amazed at how great we are.

Our Slavic community is changing, but our hearts aren't. That's why we need to show our kindness to others and to ourselves.

How I want others to see my community

by Sveta Demenko, age 16

I want my people seen as the ones who bring good examples to the world. The ones who are positive about everything even if it's not the best thing. Also, I want them to help each other out with anything, have each other's backs, so people would see us and want to do the same.

Also, I want my people to not just be positive about everything, but to do things that are fun and good for everyone like play sports, have parties. Not the ones where you get wasted, but show people you can have fun without putting poison in your body.

Thoughts on how we want to be seen

by Yana Yukhimchuk, age 16
photo by Liliya Khylchuk

I want people to view the Slavic community as nice, generous, smart people, not obnoxious, mischievous cheaters. I want people to see us for the hard workers that we are. We are very creative, intellectual people.

There are a lot of habits that we brought to America from our home country. For example, farming, fixing cars, building construction, and our religion.

Back in Russia and Ukraine, we were raised in a culture where everyone built their own homes and most farmed, meaning they didn't have to waste much on food, because almost everything was home grown. This shows that we're hardworking people. Also, we are helpful because everyone was always helping each other out. We brought this lifestyle here with us.