When
speaking of the subject of race, many elements come into play. For many, it’s a specific identification of
your ethnic identity, and for others, a group society places you in based on
the basic characteristics you were born with.
Although, in some cases, there have been times that non-white humans in
America have been racially profiled as only “Black” or “Latino” without proper
determination of their origins. Not only
this, but statistically speaking, many non-white people exposed to some of the
harsher realities of discrimination, often display the personality of what is
identified as a “ pan-ethnic” or group associated with a lower socioeconomic
background. In other words, there are
many minorities in the United States that suffer from being pulled into a lower
class without once recognizing who they truly are and what they stand for.
From my
personal experiences, the way people seem to see you is first by the
identification of your ethnic background.
What is difficult about this is how no matter where you are in the
world, you’ll always have ones that try to make foolish assumptions of what
your racial background is. From what has
been explained in class is how there are often many Latinos in America, not
just the Midwest, that are falsely mistaken as Chicano, or Mexican. This is, of course, mainly due to the fact of
noticing some of the common, stereotypical elements of a Latino or Latina, such
as the orientation of their hair, eyes, nose, height, weight, and most commonly,
whether they know Spanish. Though some
argue that this segregates Latin Americans into a community to share common
customs, the reality is, by not knowing whether that person is truly Mexican,
or Puerto Rican, or Cuban, how can you just assume they belong to a specific
ethnic background, based on appearance, when you more than likely don’t fully
know that person, or where they originally came from.
Furthermore,
to add to the fact that non-whites are improperly identified in society, those
that may have migrated from another country that move to a poor inner-city area,
are said to eventually adapt to the pan-ethnic picked up by African-American
residents. As far as the school system,
like the ones in many known city school systems, such as Chicago, they are
often integrated, with many different non-white racial backgrounds in attendance. Despite growing up in a poor area, people in
those conditions are at least able to have the opportunity to converse with
many different ethnic backgrounds and have a bit of appreciation for another
person’s culture. However, if you were
to take that same individual out of that inner-city area, and relocate them to
a suburb away from home and with a relative, people you socialize with,
regardless of what their ethnicity is, will judge you and assume you are
Mexican because you just happen to know Spanish, or assume your black by the
shape of your nose or the curliness of your hair, or make any, assumption.
With all honesty, I believe that if we as a
country were able to stop looking at people as a certain race, it would
eliminate the thought of racially profiling someone. In the average non-white person’s life, there
are always acts of discrimination that mold the way a person becomes from
childhood to adulthood. It’s the 21st
century, and I believe that in order to simply end discrimination, would be to
ditch the ideology of racial identity in America, and focus more on identity of
self and life experience. Of course we
live in a world where characteristics vary. In fact, our very country is the home of
diversity as a united country, with liberty and justice for all. So the next time you apply for a job and see
the checklist on what your specific race is, think back on liberty, and how a
person should not be categorized for their ethnicity, but instead what they can
do, whether it be skill, knowledge, or talent, for that company.
Feliciano, Cynthia. "Education and Ethnic Identity Formation among Children of Latin American and Caribbean Immigrants." Sociological Perspectives 52.2 (2009): 135-158. JSTOR Arts & Sciences 8 Current. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
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