Another Course Blog: sf@SF

My science fiction course begins in less than an hour, so I'm officially launching the course web site and course blog right...about...now! Since it focuses on post-W.W.II U.S. writers, it will actually be very much about American Identities!

On Sports, Small Towns, and Stereotypes

The last of the student identification papers from last semester.

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Identity is a part of everyone. It is what defines us, and makes us who we are. Our identity changes allowing people to behave differently with others. These behaviors can affect our lives. It is the way we look, live, and how we like ourselves. It determines how we treat people. Race and ethnicity have been a part of human history since the beginning of time. It depends on how each individual interprets race and ethnicity because it affects us overall. My identity developed in high school by having playing sports. Growing up is hard for everyone. A small town population can play a major role on how each person looks upon racial issues. It can determine if you believe there is a difference between the races and if you think there is a major diversity between different cultures. When you are growing up you are trying to find out what kind of person you want to become. At the same time, you have to try and fit in with other people in your school to be accepted and make friends. An individual’s identity is determined by many factors. A major influence that can change an identity is based on the environment a person grows and develops in which includes a large or small school district.

My identity is defined on how I see myself and how people view me. I consider myself to be an average Caucasian male. My ethnicity includes Irish, Dutch, and German. The blend of these nationalities only defines the way I look. I inherited light skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, fair color, and height, but I feel that I really am an American person. An American is what really defines me as well as a lot of other people who live in the United States. My identity, how I live my life, and the outlook of life is related to my family values. I was taught to always be open-minded and respectful of everyone regardless of education, race, or cultural backgrounds. It does not matter where they came from or what they look like, but how I felt about them. I value people who are kind and exhibit traits of goodness. I am drawn to people who share these values and promote these values. My identity comes from what I do and less from my nationality. Knowing more about other ethnicities can make you change how you feel about your own.

I am a very unique person in the fact that I like a lot different things. My choice of music that I listen to defines me. I like Xbox 360 and my choice of playing games with different opponents is a way of expressing who I am and my competitive side. I like to win. Since I was young, my older brother and I enjoyed gaming. Growing up in a small town, I have been extremely close with my family. I have a stronger relationship with my family and have established a strong bond with them which will last for my lifetime.

Family plays a huge role on how you identify yourself. Family members will encourage, support, educate, and give you ideas on how to socialize and behave in society. Parents can play a large role on how they introduce you to people when you are young. A lot of the ideas you have come initially from your parents and how you look at life. As an individual, you learn to select behaviors and replicate them from your parents, while at the same time decipher what you want to believe and what you do not want to. As the youngest child in the family, I have older brother and sister to look at in times of need so they can help me to decide on what actions to take when I am not sure of which decision to make. Older siblings have previous knowledge from experiences therefore are an asset to the younger sibling. There are advantages to having siblings because you have close ties with them but at the same time you can also go on your own road to be the person you want to be. Siblings all have similar foundation however each of us has encountered different experiences that identify who we are. For example, each sibling having the opportunity to attend different colleges and visiting one in other broadens your knowledge base. Each sibling has the opportunity of participating in different events. My sister had the opportunity of participating in the Walt Disney World College Program where she was able to meet people from all around the world. It enabled her as an individual to broaden her knowledge of people ethnicities but also become more open minded. My sister’s opportunity to participate in this program and share her experience with me has enriched me with new ideas about different places.

The media is also a factor on how you look and see your identity. These include the TV, newspaper, and the internet. Each of these plays a major role on how you see life. There are certain television shows that are considered to be reality and staged. However, many individuals become disappointed when they discover what is real and what is not real. It is presenting a false reality. Individuals will find certain shows that they will relate well to. The newspaper provides articles that teach you about situations and problems in the world. Each person has to decipher the viewpoints because they can be sensationalized to sell the papers. Majority of people use the Internet as a resource, which can teach you almost anything you want to know. For example, people can find out where you come from or facts about your ethnic background. This will contribute to ideas and teach you how to feel about yourself. It influences a person by finding out information about your genealogy by showing you new facts about your personal life that you did not know about.

My experiences with race and ethnicity have changed throughout my life. My experiences began when I started school and where I grew up. I live in a small town in the Finger Lakes Region called Penn Yan. The diversity of the town is really small. Most people are Caucasian and middle class. During high school, every school year a new person was introduced to the school from overseas and everyone in school would attempt to meet this new person. Through sports, I was able to socialize with the foreign exchange student and learn more about him. I feel I gained a lot of my social experience through playing basketball for a long time. When playing, I had the opportunity to travel quite a bit. I was able to see a lot of different city/towns, which allowed me to view more than just living in one place. One social experience that I remember is when you would first observed the team. Often other players would stereotype people. For example, if the players were an all African American team, our less experienced team members would get scared and express their feelings that our team would lose because they are all African American. The inexperienced players on the team would articulate there believes that these African Americans players can jump higher and are faster athletes. I never let this non-essential stereotypes effect my mind set as a played during a basketball game.

My living environment in small town consisted of everyone knowing everyone. If something happened to someone everyone would know in less than a few hours. The size of my high school was about 150 students per class. I was identified as the tall basketball player. For everyone that has lived in a small town knows how much different it is compared to living in a large town with a large school. School size has a large impact based on a person becoming friends with many of their peers and how you are identified as being with whom. Small towns may make it more of a challenge to find the friends you want to be with because of the school population. In Penn Yan, if people do not fit in the stereotype of being a “normal” person you could have a hard time finding friends. Change rarely happens in Penn Yan. People become comfortable with their surroundings and tend to oppose change rather than embracing or trying anything new. Change could be a good because it can change the views of other people. With a limited about of change taking place, people may live a couple of generations in the small town and still having the same views from 30 years ago. These people become acquainted with their routines and living there for so long that they may have a hard time accepting anything new. These people may immediately reject new ideas/believes because they do not know anything better. People get set in their ways. Many people believe if it is not broken, then why fix it in regards to change. They feel that if people do not like the way they are than they should not come here and they can move elsewhere.

Basketball from now to when I was in high school has changed a lot. I came from a team of all Caucasian teammates to a team that has a more mix of African Americans. From my team in high school I was considered to be the best person on the team. I consider all my teammates to be my friends because we share social similarities and interests. The only difference between my teammates is our dialect. This is really not a problem with me. I feel as a team that everyone brings something to the table. You get a mixture of people on and off the court, but when you are on the court it does not matter what your race is because we are playing as a team.

There are many unrealistic beliefs or ideas that are not true also known as a stereotype. High schools have a lot of stereotypes. It can be from what color your hair is to the style of clothes you wear. People automatically think that if you are tall you must play basketball, which is not true. That if you short and play basketball you do not have a clear advantage. Another big stereotype is if you are African American, majority of them play basketball and not hockey. Only Caucasian players play hockey and African Americans do not participate. All of these stereotypes are not true and have been around for a long time.

School size in high school can play a role in your life. School size can be considered as a major part of establishing identity. It depends on how easy it is for an individual to find the friends that fit you the best based on living in a large town with larger school districts. Larger towns usually have more diversity among the school. Diversity in schools helps you find out who you are going to become from how you feel about other people and what you learn as well as think about them. There is a big difference of someone telling you about a different race compared to actually knowing them and observing how they really are. These experiences can help get rid of people articulating racist comments and people believing them just because you do not know for yourself. Overall, the role and views of ethnicity can change if you have a wide range of diversity in school which enables students to become knowledgeable rather than being ignorant. Schools play a huge role on how kids look at life and how they feel about other people because it is the foundation of their lives. They can come out of school with a wide range of background knowledge of other people and start their life knowing more about how people act and live their lives.

Now that I am attending college in Fredonia there is a larger population of diverse students. There are people from all over New York State that come here and also some that can be from all over the world. Majority of student attending Fredonia are Caucasian students, but have a wider ethnic background. People come with their diverse backgrounds and intermix with other students. I have observed students being able to find the friends they want to have based on similar interests and backgrounds. There is a wider range of people’s ethnicity in this school. Students have the opportunity to join groups and clubs to be able to meet other people. I have learned from my experiences at two different school settings that being at a larger school, people are very similar, but have different ideas on what they choose to do and what they consider to be enjoyable.

My future goal after attending Fredonia is to become a history teacher. As a history teacher I plan to incorporate a multitude of diversity into the classroom curriculum through texts, guest speakers, and technology. I hope to make a difference in a child's live through knowledge of the content as well as being a successful citizen. I would like to model an open minded goal so that each individual is equal and does not have preconceived notion about people before learning and getting to know them as an individual. An open minded environment will allow each individual to be comfortable and considered equal. Where the student will be able acknowledge his/her ethnicity and have a voice for who they are. Many teachers have preconceived believes that students who have a dialect or from another ethnicity are not intelligent because they do not speak proper English. These teachers are being ignorant because all students have the ability to learn. Each student has strengths and weaknesses. The teacher’s role is to address their weaknesses through differentiating learning while incorporating their strengths for success. With this it will help the students learn and become better people in the long run.

The concept of race and ethnicity is a mind-set. The fact is that when we stereotype people we are attributing certain behaviors and expectations of people in groups based on race and their ethnic background. The government had to change the past and present to accommodate basic needs of people, but also comprised group of people daily in the United States in order to provide social services, immigrations, laws, and order in our country. People throughout history have change their behavior and accepted ethnicity. In the past different cultures, nationalities, and races have been looked down upon, but now are more accepted in segments of the country than in the past. If we stop searching for something wrong and try to find the something that is good within everyone, than this simple value and behavior would help the world. It would then create change that is beneficial because positive views would be the focus, which would make society a lot different.

When people identify themselves as an individual in order to define who they are and what make them unique so they are different from everybody else. This can be considered both positive and negative. It is a way of identifying how a person is distinctive from another person. The race of a person is given, but the ethnicity can be altered based how the individual feels and believes about themselves. People can not choose where they live when they are young. It also does not mean that you will not be a good person if you live in a small or large town. Seeing people for who they are is the most important. It should not be viewed as if they are wrong if they look at life in a different view then you. People also need to learn about different views before they judge them. For example, “an individual puts themselves into somebody else’s shoes,” portrays how the person feels about their ethnicity as well as learning from their particular believes and viewpoints. Learning is the key to advancing who we are as people and determining what actions we take. Change also helps people learn new ways to think about life. Change also allows people to adapt because you are not always able to control your environment. The strength of your character and identity helps influence your decisions in positive ways to guide yourself as well as help others.

I Am American?

Here's the next-to-last of the student papers from last semester!

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What is my ethnicity? Instinctively, I would answer that as confidently as I would answer to “what is your name?” That answer being, “I am American.” I was born in America, I am an American citizen and by all common stereotypes I am the typical American girl. However, upon further reflection I have found myself at a crossroads. I am stuck in a place that is confusing and yet, incredibly intriguing.


Over the last few weeks we have been discussing our own identities and how we claim ourselves and our ethnicities. This has always been a very simple topic of conversation for me. Well, the simplicity of this conversation came to an abrupt halt during our last class.


During our in-class writing I confidently explained that my ethnicity is indeed American and I further went on to explain why, most of those reasons being stated above. A few minutes later I found myself sitting in my seat completely stunned and quite honestly, disgusted and disappointed in myself. This was the first moment in my life where I realized that I don’t know who I am. I no longer know how to identify myself.


Professor, you stood up in front of the class and explained how some people might consider you Jewish because of your family history. That story is exactly where my confidence in my ethnicity ended, not to at all imply that is a bad thing. I am very happy to be confronted with my mistake, if you will, and I am excited to now delve into my history and find my true identity.


I can no longer say “I am American” with such confidence. My mother was born in Canada and spent a lot of her upbringing there. My father was born in Rochester, New York but he grew up Jewish.


This is where my confusion begins. My father was Jewish all of his childhood. His parents and siblings were very much into their faith. At some point down the road my father stopped being Jewish, if you believe that is something you can stop being. He doesn’t talk about his upbringing at all with me, or my siblings, so that is really all I know about it. His father died right before I was born and his mother, “Bubbi” was alive until I was in middle school and passed away in a home, so I didn’t know her that well.


His parents lived and died Jewish, and his brother and sister stayed with their religion. I remember back in high school when I had a debate with a group of my peers over whether or not I was Jewish. I believe we came to the conclusion that I was not. Was it in my father’s blood? Of course, it is his history, but does that mean it has to be mine? I would not at all be ashamed to be Jewish, however, I almost feel as though I am an imposter. I have no right to claim myself as Jewish. I eat anything I want, I don’t separate certain silverware from other silverware because you use that fork for one particular thing. I don’t celebrate Hanukkah or any other Jewish holiday, I celebrate Christmas. By every definition, I am certainly not Jewish. I feel wrong claiming myself as Jewish and I feel like if I don’t acknowledge that part of me that I am turning my back to it. I have thought about this and then thought about it some more, I cannot come up with an answer. When it comes down to it I guess I still just see myself as American, hopefully throughout this semester I can gain a better grip on my understanding of myself and my history.


I think a lot of the reason why I feel bad claiming myself as Jewish is because of my history with it. I have been to one Jewish wedding, my Aunts, last year. It was interesting and surprisingly not as different as I thought it would be. The only thing that stuck out to me as incredibly different was that the man and the woman stand on opposite sides at a Jewish wedding.


Mostly, I feel a lot of guilt because of the one Jewish funeral I attended. It was the funeral of my father’s mom, Bubbi. I think I was maybe twelve when she died. I have four sisters: one is five years younger than me, one is less than a year older and the other two, at that time, were approximately seventeen and twenty-two.


We walked into the funeral home and had no idea what to expect. No, rather, we walked into a funeral home and expected a funeral. My sisters and I were all sitting together, behind our parents, when the Rabbi walked up front and suddenly started singing in Hebrew. My sisters and I were in shock. No one forewarned us about any of this. Our immediate reaction was to laugh. We had never heard Hebrew before, especially someone singing it. We were young and ignorant and naïve.


I laughed for a short time until I heard people in the back crying. I think that is when I came back to reality and remembered where I was, and for what reason. I have never forgiven myself for that brief moment of incredible ignorance and just a horrible flaw in my character.


As much as I still think about that and feel guilty I attribute that experience to helping me become the person I am today. I believe myself to be an extremely open person. Just last night someone said to me, “Why do you always try to like everyone? Sometimes someone is just not a good person.” That’s just who I am now. Nothing bothers me more than pure ignorance. That experience made me realize, at a very young age, that everyone is different and just because someone is different than you doesn’t mean they are a bad person. I can look at most any person and any experience and try to find the good in them. As much guilt as I have always carried around for that experience I am grateful that it happened.


When this class first began I had no idea what the difference was between race and ethnicity. I don’t think I have a confident answer down yet but I have made progress and I plan to have it down perfectly by the end of the semester.

My understanding of race is that it is something which is socially constructed. I think of race as either you are white, black, hispanic, etc. As much as people say race shouldn’t be about physical characteristics I have to disagree. I don’t understand how you can determine race without attributing characteristics or skin color to it.


Ethnicity to me is how you would describe yourself, e.g., American or Canadian, etc. Also, some would argue that being Jewish is your religion. I disagree. While I do understand that it is a religion I think it is much more than that. With that said, I think you could use any religion in that category. For example, someone could describe themselves as American and Christian. I don’t think there should be too many boundaries when describing your own identity, and that is precisely what I think ethnicity is. Your ethnicity is your identity. No one should be able to tell you the correct way to describe yourself.


Part II

When I originally wrote this paper a few months ago I thought I had a pretty good handle on it. However, no matter how well you think you have your mind wrapped around something there is always something else you can learn.

I have learned a lot in this class throughout this semester. I have learned that I can consider myself both American and Jewish and I can do so without holding back because of any guilt over picking one or the other. I have also learned, mostly through reading The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, that people of every race and ethnicity struggle with their identity. Originally, I thought this struggle was a sign of immaturity and a need to venture out into the world and find themselves at a young age.

Quite honestly I feel as though I learned the most and grew the most from my experiences in this class just recently over the last week or two. It was one article in particular that opened my mind. This article was titled, “Apologizing for being a black male” which is in The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States.

This article describes the experience a black man goes through before coming to the realization that he no longer wants to apologize for being black. Before this realization this man would constantly attempt to change his persona while around others whom he believed could be intimidated and/or feel threatened by him, purely because he was a black man. “At times I’ve actually gone so far as to adopt what I consider a less threatening posture whenever I encounter a white woman, especially an older one, in places where we are alone together” (Dawkins 68.) This man was consistently worrying about how others felt and concentrated only on making them comfortable. He completely abandoned his identity to feel more socially accepted.

When I first read this article I was floored. I didn’t know what to think. At first I was angry because I feel as though his example of finding women uncomfortable in his presence while alone in a parking lot was a stretch. Do I think a lot of people, men and women both, could be more intimidated by a black man than a white man? Probably, yes. However, I think this man jumps to blaming this uncomfortable behavior on him being black before considering the alternatives. It is very believable to think any woman would feel uncomfortable with a man approaching a neighboring pay phone to hers while alone in a parking lot at night. That is how we are brought up, to constantly be aware of our surroundings and the potential dangers lurking, especially in parking lots and parking ramps.

With further thought however, this article is what essentially helped me to realize that you cannot feel guilty about who you are. Whether we’re talking about your race, ethnicity, your career or whatever. You are who you are and people should embrace their own identity.

I decided that from that point on I would not edit my actions. I forgot about my neighbor and completed my call in the same way I would have if a white male, black female, or Hispanic male had been using a nearby phone. I determined that life was too short and that my self-respect was too valuable. (Dawkins 69)

Whether or not I agree with this man blaming this experience on the fact that he was a black male, over the fact that he was simply a man, this paragraph hit me stronger than anything I have read in any of my classes: respect who you are and be proud of it.

In the beginning of this semester my goal was to find answers to the above questions. Throughout this paper I have realized that I have not reached my goals. Through that realization has come hope. Ultimately, I have learned a greater lesson, one that outweighs my goals. If I have learned anything this semester it is to not hide who I am or who I want to be. I don’t have all the answers. I am still not sure if I should or want to consider myself Jewish and I don’t know if that is something I will ever have an answer to. My future path and experiences I am sure will help me to determine more answers, and I look forward to them.

Work Cited

Dawkins, Paul Andrew. “Apologizing for Being a Black Male.” The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Second Edition. Eds. Joan Ferrante and Prince Brown, Jr. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Evolution, Social Construction, and Race

Writing a paper in which I must talk about myself, and my own personal beliefs about race and ethnicity, is a very sobering thought. I am so lucky to have the life I have. I can attend a college, have parents who are financially stable enough to support me, worship without fear, and speak freely about the government. This puts me in the minority on the earth. It seems to me that nature chooses our race, society chooses the culture we get raised with, and as we get older we choose the ethnic group that we want to identify with. Society then chooses whether or not to accept that self-imposed identification.

There is a quote I like from my animal behavior textbook that reads, “The pervasive effects of our cultures on our behavior obviously make it especially challenging to apply evolutionary theory to the human species. But because human cultures are the product of an evolved brain, it seems highly likely that an understanding of our evolution would cast light on why we do what we do” (Alcock). I like this quotation because I do think a small percentage of why we behave the way we do can actually be traced back to evolution, though I also believe there are many things that are definitely learned behaviors. Nevertheless, I am beginning to think that maybe the issues of race and ethnicity are a tad more instinctive than I had previously thought.

During Neanderthal times, humans had to stick together in order to survive. Our species survival in many cases depended on the hard work of the family group (hunting, gathering, protecting, navigating, etc.) In many cases, these groups would consist of mainly extended family members, so assimilating and forming troops with those that looked similar to you makes sense, because normally they were distantly related. However, I would imagine problems would arise when two groups came into contact with each other for the sole reason that they would be competing for the same resources. The issue then would be making sure that the other group was not related to you as well, before things got violent and one group was forced to fight or flee. But during these times, I would imagine populations were pretty spread out and there was little contact between family groups. However, as time progressed and people of different cultures began coming in contact with each other, I believe a sort of survival-racism came into play. When two groups of people that looked very different from each other stumbled upon each other, there was no longer the question of whether or not they were related. Now, they each were clearly a potential threat to the survival of the other group. Therefore, I do not believe that race or ethnicity are solely socially-constructed terms. Furthermore, I reject the argument some have proposed that people would not judge others based on appearance if the words race or ethnicity were never invented. Instead, I think humans since the beginning of our existence have always judged those that looked and acted differently from them because early on, different people were perceived as a threat to the survival of a group. Now, I am not arguing that racism is absolutely instinctive either or that society cannot overcome it. The beauty of the human species is that we are a species of great intellect and have the ability to combat instinct; the question should really be whether or not we have the will.

In a book I recently finished cleverly titled, I Can Read You Like a Book, authors Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch discuss non-verbal behavior and simple cues everyone can read to better interpret the real messages people are sending. An example I find very interesting is one Hartley states as a tactic he uses when interrogating two criminals who claim to not know each other. Therefore, one can infer that even if both criminals recognize each other, they are consciously trying to behave like they do not in order to support their stories. Yet, there is one facial movement that is very difficult to suppress and it revolves around the eye brows.

I encourage you to try this next time you are walking through an area where there is someone you will see and know. The moment you see a familiar face, upon the initial realization, your eyebrows will raise slightly even if just for a split second. Yet, this behavior does not occur with strangers. Therefore, it is a good indicator when bringing together two criminals who claim not to know each other to watch their immediate eyebrow reaction. If no reaction, they are probably telling the truth. If the eyebrows raise, then a red flag should go up because they probably know each other and are lying. But what does this example have to do with race and ethnicity?

This example simply shows that though humans have certain behaviors that are acquired through learning in their environment, there are still some ultimate behaviors that are instinctual and difficult to suppress no matter how hard a person tries. These instinctual behaviors exist in modern humans and cannot be consciously controlled without great effort. I believe a similar deeply ingrained instinctual tendency occurs in humans in regard to racial association: Humans like to associate with other humans of the same race. It’s only when these associations become exclusionary that we have racism.

With that said, there are indeed traits in humans that are not adaptive. An adaptive trait would be something that helps sexual reproduction and ultimately the overall fitness of a species. But for instance, the use of birth control, circumcision, or not eating certain foods (that are perfectly alright when consumed by others) based solely on religious views would not really advance a person’s fitness. Therefore, I would submit that these non-adaptive traits would best be described as “ethnicity”. Your race is not something you can choose to be or not because it is your biological make-up. Ethnic and culturally driven behaviors can be changed at will. For instance, you can learn the customs or language of a certain ethnicity and you can practice their traditions. You can then adapt to whatever ethnicity you would like to be classified in, no matter what race you are.

Therefore, I believe evolution can provide an explanation for race but not for ethnicity, because they are different. Race, to me, is the biological, adaptive composition of the human where as I believe ethnicity is the cultural aspect.

Strangely enough though, race cannot be determined through genetics, even though I am referring to race as a person’s biological composition. You cannot measure someone’s genes and expect to find a certain gene that only African Americans have. Even sickle cell anemia, a major problem for blacks, for example, shows up occasionally outside the black community. An interesting statement I found on the Radford college website said that “there is no genetic basis for mutually exclusive racial categories, simply because features and characteristics are distributed along a continuous distribution.” It further stated that the Human Genome Project found that there is actually more variation within a group than between groups and that seventy five percent of all known genes are present in all people and the remaining twenty five percent differ in forms, but all forms are found in all groups of people. It turns out that the same way our ancestors determined race hundreds of years ago is actually the same way we determine it today, through physical appearance.

Ethnicity, on the other hand, I believe to be different. Since I think people can choose their ethnicity, I think there is a higher sense of comradery for people of the same ethnicity. I read a story in The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States that spoke of a girl from Korean parents who was adopted and raised by an Italian family. The girl was racially categorized as Asian, but she identified her ethnicity as Italian because she spoke Italian, ate Italian food and did not know anything about Korean culture or practices. This choice of where you want to fit in ethnically is why I think people seem more proud of their ethnicity than their race. This choice might also be why the terms ethnicity and race are used so interchangeably in today’s society and why they can be so confusing when addressed.

As I was growing up, we always had house guests from far away countries. At an early age, my brother and I were surrounded by wonderful people who looked different and spoke different languages. In fact, I may have tied race and ethnicity to foods (e.g. Mexicans made great enchiladas, Asians made sushi, Greeks made great hummus, etc…) so I learned to appreciate other cultures and races thanks to the wonderful dinners associated with those visits.

Come to think of it, race was never really a hot issue in our household. As a child, I played with black-skinned dolls because I thought the facial color was prettier. My parents probably said “everyone looks different, we are all the same species, it is just skin color, but more importantly have you seen the new National Geographic issue yet”? Race was not something that needed to be discussed because it just existed. There are dozens of different dog breeds though they are the same species. No one breed is better than the other and a good dog depends on the individual. As well, I learned that species looked different because some of those traits were beneficial to the environment that the animal inhabited. Therefore, it made sense that people looked different for similar reasons. This does not imply that a certain bee species with an elaborate dance for finding food is any more sophisticated than a bee species without a dance. It simply means that different species evolved different traits and behaviors that were beneficial enough to get the individuals and their offspring to where they are today. This may sound like a languid endeavor, but when considering that 99.9 percent of all species have gone extinct on this planet, being alive today is a big deal and all the organisms you see alive today are the surviving .1 percent! Therefore, everything alive today has earned its place on this Earth and it probably has a lot to do with the physical differences of certain species that gave them a benefit over their competitors. As a result, the human species that exists today was spread throughout the land masses of this planet and the people alive today are here because they adapted physical and mental capabilities that allowed them to excel against others in shared environments. Therefore, differences should not only be encouraged, they should be celebrated! Physical attributes should be more like trophies than inhibiting factors because it might have been the specific shade of their skin that protected their pigment from cancerous cells derived from the suns harmful rays. Anyone with that characteristic should be proud to sport it because it may indeed be the sole reason you are here today.

With that kind of mentality, my experience with race and ethnicity has been pretty uneventful. I have never gotten in a big disagreement with someone of another race over racial differences or preconceived notions. Though I am sure I consciously notice the color of someone’s skin upon meeting them and I probably categorize them in some way subconsciously, I really think that is as far as my racial profiling goes. If someone rubs me the wrong way, it is because I disagree with the individual, not the race.

This past summer I had the opportunity to backpack in Belize for a month and a half and study the different ethnicities there. Everyone I met in that country was unbelievably friendly and it was amazing how different native Belizean’s look from each other. There are five cultural groups in Belize (Mayans, Garifuna, Mestizo, Mennonite, and Creole). Mayans look Mexican, Garifunas look Sudanese, Mestizos look Spanish, Mennonites look and dress like white Amish people I’ve seen in Central New York, and Creole’s look like light-skinned African Americans. Yet all of these people are Belizean. Their ethnicity is Mayan, Garifuna, etc…but their race would be very hard to pinpoint. It seems our society has decided you are Latin American, Asian, Native American, white or black and everyone must just squeeze themselves into one of these categories. But, that is not the case and I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be to choose a race you didn’t identify with, but perhaps resembled, so you could fill out some Government paperwork.

After all, it is these physical differences that allowed these different groups of humans to out-compete other groups consuming their resources. People look different because traits evolved throughout our existence that allowed our ancestors with those distinguishing features that are still present today to benefit and survive. These differences bring together the most fit of our species to comprise homosapiens.

As a species, I think we have a lot to be proud of. The latest medical achievement that I am excited about is the successful regeneration of a human thumb! Can you imagine the possibilities if we can regenerate any organ, limb, etc… Our species has even found a way to clone ourselves! We invented cars and planes as a more efficient way to motor around and now that we are finding the problems that these fossil fuel emissions are causing for the environment, we are actually finding alternative methods to not only stop but fix the problems we have caused.

It bothers me that as the human race we have achieved so much, yet when we are broken down into sub-categories, especially categories as simple as skin color, suddenly we have problems accomplishing anything. I cannot believe that organizations like the Ku Klux Klan still exist! Are people really still showing up? I have trouble viewing anyone who would be that concerned with the color of someone else’s skin as being a modern human. If aliens beamed down from space and watched how some races treat other races, they might ask if all people on earth were of the same species. I might tell the space visitors that in spite of the way some races treat others we are all homosapiens, but that some of us are still driven more by primitive instinct than by common sense and intellect.

It is such a set-back when one looks at the beauty of the human species and all that we are capable of. I think of all the achievements that individuals have made through out our existence as a species and the compassion and love we can transmit to others. However, we are still capable of such bitterness and hostility to those who can differ from us in something as simple as skin color. The fact that discrimination still exists today is a sickening stumble on the walk to bettering our race, the human race. Yet, it seems the conception of this “human race” is a revolutionary idea that only one racial sub-group seems to fit…the whites.

I do believe that education is the key to ending the negativity surrounding race and ethnicity in the United States. Henry Steele Commager once said that “change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” I hope that by this point, at the very least society has made it not as socially acceptable to be hostile to differences in race and ethnicity, but I believe it is the role of education to provide solutions to fixing the problems. This may sound like an impossible mission for the few that are up to the task in relation to the world as a whole, but there is a quote from Margaret Mead that I try to apply to every aspect of my life for motivation. She said to “never believe that a few, caring individuals cannot change the world. For indeed, that is all who ever have.” Indeed, time will tell.

Works Cited

Alcock, John. Animal Behavior. Eighth Edition. Sinauer Assoc., 2005.

Commager, Henry Steele.

Ferrante, Joan and Brown, Prince Jr., eds. The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001.

Hartley, Gregory and Karinch, Maryann. I Can Read You Like A Book. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2007.

www.radfor.edu/~jaspelme/minoritygroups/Race%20vs.%20Ethnicity%20&%20Culture%20handout.pdf.

My Identity

This is another student paper from last semester's Introduction to Ethnicity/Race course.

***

There isn’t just one clear-cut answer in defining one’s identity, race, or ethnicity, because everyone is different. Identity can be defined as characteristics used to describe someone’s personality, ethnicity, race, and behavior, in order to understand individuals. There are many perspectives on race and ethnicity. The goal of this essay will be to identify myself as an individual by using my past experiences to explain these concepts of race and ethnicity.

If I asked others to describe my physical appearance and characteristics there are many responses that I would receive. My identity can be described in the following manner, I was born in Syracuse, New York, in July of 1986. The most common way my physical attributes can be defined is that I have dark tan skin, black hair, brown eyes, and I’m five foot five inches tall. From this appearance many people think my race is Spanish, Mexican, or Hispanic, although I’m actually Italian American.

This is a common mistake among people when they try to identify people’s races. Many people think that race is just the physical attributes of a person, or what’s on the surface, such as what color skin someone has, how tall someone is, their facial features, and body type. This is a mistake that I made before I first started looking at race and ethnicity in a closer manner. At first, I just considered myself to be Caucasian, because I thought that I’m white not dark so Caucasian would be correct. Also when looking at others, I assumed when looking at a black person, that they were African American, or that a moderately dark person was Spanish. I realize that race is so much more from just being white or black. Race isn’t what someone looks like, or what color their skin is, it’s defining where they came from, or who they identify with. This can be seen from looking at two perspectives, a biological one and a socially constructed one.

Let’s first examine the biological perspective on race. When looking at this view it’s important to know what we mean exactly by explaining our race in terms of biology. Dr. Lee, a biology professor at SUNY Fredonia, recently presented information on this perspective. A biological perspective means that race isn’t important except in terms of medicine, because certain races have certain genes carrying diseases, like Sickle Cell Anemia and Cystic Fibrosis. But for other areas our genes explain who we are, where are ancestors came from, and when it comes to diseases doctors will rely on your individual genotype and not your racial history. Examining someone’s DNA allows geneticists to trace his or her maternal ancestry by mitochondrial DNA, and his or her paternal ancestry by the y chromosome, which is only present in males (Lee 2007).

One argument against the notion that race is biological can be seen by looking at the relationship between physical features and a person’s genetic makeup. If you look at a person’s genes, and you know what diseases they have this doesn’t tell you anything about their physical features or race. Likewise, when you look at someone’s skin color or eye color this doesn’t tell you what their genes are. This is saying that the biological perspective doesn’t support race, because there’s no direct relationship between someone’s genetic makeup and physical features (Brown Jr. 2001).

I have problems with believing this biological perspective for several reasons. One is that people don’t just have one kind of genes defining their race; often times, they have many. This can be seen by looking at evidence from the article, “Why Race Makes no Scientific Sense: The Case of Africans and Native Americans,” by Prince Brown Jr. Brown argues in the case of Africans and Native Americans, many times their genes are interchanged. In that 500 years ago when ships were present in Asia, and Africa, there was an immediate exchanging of human genes between these two cultures. Therefore, the science behind this biological perspective isn’t the best one to use when referring to race, because it isn’t always accurate. So let’s now look at the socially constructed perspective on race (Brown Jr. 144-151).

Race based on a socially constructed theory can best be defined by looking at a quote by Prince Brown Jr. “Perhaps the strongest evidence that race isn’t a biological fact but a social creation is the different rules for classifying people into racial categories across societies and the shifting rules for classifying people within a single society” (Ferrante and Brown Jr. 115). The quote is describing society in America throughout history, and how we can see how society has changed its view of race over time. This can be seen by the categories in the census in recent years.

Society viewed race early on in broad terms as either being white or black; then this notion of race was transformed over time. The census of race reveals this change from 1790-2000. This view on race changed over time because the American society changed as well. Early on we only had whites and slaves in this country, then through our Independence movement, Civil War, and Industrialization periods we saw changes in our society. These changes were the immigrants that came from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and they shaped the world we live in today. The way these immigrants transformed America life, at the same time transformed our notions of race and these notions became more complex. This is a trend we are going to see throughout history; our society will continue to change, and with it so will our race (Ferrante and Brown Jr. 115-117).

This is why I believe that race is socially constructed and not biologically based. For one, are genes are all different, no one’s is the same, and it is impossible to trace our race from our genes. Another reason is that our society shows how are race is being constructed. Over time both of these concepts have changed, which explains the different races that are occurring in America. Race can be seen as being physical attributes of a person or groups of people as viewed by our society, and how these views have been changing over time because of the changes of people in society.

Another piece of evidence that explains race as being socially constructed can be seen by looking at the question, “Does race matter?” Yes, I feel that race does matter. Why? Race is one of the defining characteristics of our identity. Race is important and matters to me because it allows me to discover who I am as a person. Without paying attention to race, I feel like I wouldn’t care about who I was. I think that race is socially constructed because it allows a person to designate themselves as being insiders, or outsiders, which reinforces their social, political, and economic environment (Ferrante and Brown Jr. 113-114). I agree with this because I do it on a daily basis. The environment you live in for example is likely to be with who you identify with. Many communities today have large homogenous areas that are, predominantly black, white, or Hispanic. We are more likely to interact with others that we can identify with. In a day to day basis we see this in our friends, school, and work settings. Because if you are hanging out or interacting with others who look differently from yourself, often this makes people in these situations feel awkward and out of place. Therefore, they will try to identify with groups of people with similar physical traits like themselves.

One way I have seen race as being socially constructed in our society or environment is based on my experience in the neighborhood I grew up in and my past work experience. I grew up in a neighborhood where the majority was middle class and Caucasian. This neighborhood formed, like many other suburbs largely because whites wanted to get out of the cities and could afford to move. Our society has been changing in that more and more people, predominantly whites, have moved to suburbs because of the poor conditions in the cities. We see a larger racial minority in the cities, from Blacks to Hispanics, because they can’t afford to move. This supports the notion that people in society identify with people similar to them, whether it be economically, socially, or racially.

I have also seen race being socially constructed in a part time job I worked over the summer at a grocery store in Syracuse. Since this store was located on the edge of the city, there was a diverse population of customers. From my viewpoint as an employee, these customers would come at certain times of the day. Usually, early on or during the day the majority of customers would be Caucasians, but towards night time you would see more African Americans and Hispanics come into the store than Caucasians. This is because these racial groups identify with each other in society; they go at the same time because they don’t want to feel out of place if they go at a different time. They want to go shopping with who they identify with. With these diverse races in our society today we can see that the world is bigger than we think, and there’s more to someone’s race than meets the eye.

Since we have established what race means, and how it can be viewed in our society, let’s look at the issue of ethnicity. When looking at Ethnicity we are looking more at someone’s heritage, nationality, culture, background, or where they came from. Initially when I started exploring this concept of race and ethnicity, I thought that my ethnic background was just Italian. However, the more and more I researched my ethnicity, the more I realized that this wasn’t the case. Like race, someone’s ethnicity is more than what meets the eye.

Let’s start by looking at my Italian ethnicity. My grandparents on my mother’s side both came from Italy, and so did the one’s on my father’s side. On my mother’s side, my grandma came from the town of Compobasso, by Rome. My grandpa was from the northern part of Italy, and grew up in the town of Trento. Living in Compobasso, my grandma spoke the Italian language, and didn’t come over here until after World War Two in 1948. My grandfather from Trento in the North was located by the German border. Here they spoke the Italian language, but they also spoke a dialect of it in the form called Tyrolean. So I think my grandfather identified with both German and Italian culture. He fought in World War Two under Mussolini, because he was still in Italy at that time. This was a hard experience for him because he didn’t like fighting under Mussolini; he didn’t agree for what he stood for. He also came over to America after the war in 1948.

My grandmother and my grandfather on my Dad’s side were both born in New York, and were Italian. Their parents both came from Sicily, and as can be seen from my skin color I have a lot of my Dad (Sicilian) in me. Also, by looking at my families’ ancestry, I have a multiethnic Italian identity, because I identify with different parts of the Italian culture, Sicilian and Tyrolean.

My family is very Italian, and I have experienced the sense of being Italian growing up. The way that I have been accustomed to my Italian, Sicilian, and Tyrolean heritage throughout the years has been with my grandparents, mostly my grandma and grandpa on my mom’s side. Whenever I would go over to their house, I would always eat, it was a ritual, and I couldn’t go over there and escape without at least eating one cookie. Throughout the years I have eaten a lot of Italian and Tyrolean dishes especially. One of the traditional Italian desserts my grandmother always prepares are pizzelles. These are waffle cookies that can either be crispy or hard depending on how you like them. A Tyrolean dish that I also have often is called Polenta. This is made from cornmeal and is a popular dish found in northern Italy still today. Growing up this is how I mostly experienced my Italian, Sicilian, and Tyrolean heritage, with my grandparents by tasting my Ethnicities. Even though I have multiple cultures or ethnicities that I identify with in Italy, I feel like in order to keep my ethnicity simple, I’m multiethnic as being an Italian American.

One article that really helped me find my ethnic identity as an Italian American was, “Are Italian Immigrants Just White Folks?” by Rudolph Vecoli. The article describes Italian Americans in America, and how there seems to be a loss of ethnic identity, in that many Italian Americans are forgetting where their ancestors came from and identifying themselves as purely Americans. An example the author uses is that many younger Italian Americans don’t even recognize their Italian names. A main reason that this is occurring is because of the older generations of Italian Americans. They aren’t doing their jobs of passing down the Italian culture to the younger generations, and therefore causing a disappearance of Italian Americans in our country today (Vecoli 264-271).

This is a critical issue that has to be addressed and something must be done in order to recover our Italian ancestry before it’s lost. I think the older generations are doing this because they want their offspring to identify more as being American and not Italian. This is a valid point because many immigrants that come here (Europeans anyways), tend to try to assimilate into the American lifestyle, and in this process they forget where their roots come from. This isn’t necessarily because they want to forget their roots, but its because they believe that forgetting them leads to a better life in America. They want their children to have better lives than they had, and if they don’t teach them their Italian roots they think this will help them to be more successful in America.

This isn’t the case though, because without all of these immigrants, there would be no America. What makes America so attractive to immigrants is its diverse population of different ethnic groups, and the chance for opportunity and a better life. It’s the older generation’s job to pass on their cultures’ traditions to the younger ones, because that will promote the younger generation’s ethnic identities of being Italian, and if this doesn’t happen Italian, and other ethnic identities in America could be lost for good.

My definition for ethnicity can be associated to what Vecoli’s, which he defined as being “a form of memory” (Vecoli 270). I think what he is saying with this statement is that Ethnicity is based on our experiences, our memories of our culture. This makes us who we are.

This statement really made it seem valid to me, because growing up my memories of going to my grandparents’ house and hearing my mom tell me of my Italian heritage have helped me to identify myself as being Italian. Also, being around my grandparents has helped to become more identified with the Sicilian and Tyrolean cultures as well. As weird as this will sound I never considered myself being an Italian American, because I always thought of myself as being one or the other. One example is I often tell my friends that, “Man you won’t believe how much food I just ate, my grandma made me eat until I couldn’t anymore.” Their response is that, “She must be Italian.” When it comes to family issues I always identify myself as Italian. Citizenship and where I live in my community, and the customs and traditions I have learned growing up can mostly be associated with me being American and not Italian. This article showed me that I’m not just Italian or American, I’m both and I have to support both of my ethnicities (Vecoli 264-271).

By looking at what I have learned throughout my research on race and ethnicity we can go back to the beginning of this essay and explain why people thought I was Spanish, or Mexican. One of the reasons this is the case is due to my skin color. I have naturally dark tan skin, and people usually associate this with being Spanish and not Italian. This is the case because based on most people’s stereotypes of being Spanish is that they have a dark tan skin color. Also, when people think of Italian, I think they listen to their language, or what they eat, more than what they look like. This is typical of people who don’t see race as more than someone’s skin or remember that race is more than what meets the eye.

Also, in terms of my Ethnicity many people think I’m Greek and not Italian based on my last name being Costa. Often time this name is considered a Greek name. However, Costa in Greek is usually spelled Kosta, not Costa. I didn’t realize my name was considered Greek sometimes until last year. One of my friends asked me, “Are you Greek?” I replied, “No, why?” He said, “Because there’s a Greek restaurant in Buffalo named Kosta’s.” This surprised me because I always assumed that my name was always considered to be Italian. But, this just goes to show, never assume someone’s ethnicity or race without exploring the possibilities first.

I think that this research on race and ethnicity has helped to prepare me to become a better teacher. My major is Social Studies Adolescence Education, and in the classroom you don’t always have a homogenous class; often times you can be placed at a school that’s diverse racially and ethnically. This class showed me that you have to be aware of who you’re trying to teach as a teacher. How are you going to be an effective teacher, if you don’t even know who the audience is that you’re teaching? I have a better knowledge base of the diversity I can expect in the classroom thanks to my research I have done on race and ethnicity. For example, knowing my students cultures and understanding their ethnicities I will be able to apply learning strategies in the classroom that they, thanks to their ethnicities or races, can better identify themselves with.

So here is what I have learned up to this point towards the end of my research on Race and Ethnicity. Race isn’t biologically based; it’s socially constructed through our experiences with others in a social, economic, and political way. Race is our physical attributes, what we look like, but also is related to how we are viewed by society. Ethnicity is based more on our experiences as individuals, with our families and what we learn about our cultures, all of which helps us to define our identity.

Now that we have redefined the concepts of race and ethnicity, let’s redefine my identity. Racially, I’m a Caucasian male. My ethnicity can best be described as a multiethnic Italian American. When it comes down to the issue of Race and Ethnicity there isn’t just one way of looking at it, as you can see these concepts can be looked at by different ways. People don’t think twice about race or ethnicity, which is sad about our culture today. It’s very important to know your identity; without it you will become lost in life.


REFERENCES:
Brown, Prince Jr. (2001a). “Biology and the Social Construction of the Race Concept.” in The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 144-151.

Brown, Prince Jr. (2001b). “Why Race Makes no Scientific Sense: The Case of Africans and Native Americans,” in The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 332-337.

Ferrante, J, and Brown, Prince Jr. (2001c). The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 113-337.

Lee, T., (2007). Presentation on Race from a Biological Perspective. Race and Genetics. SUNY Fredonia.

Vecoli, Rudolph J. (2001). “Are Italian Americans Just White Folks?” in The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 264-271.

Race to the Finish Line

Here's another anonymous student paper from the fall semester of my Introduction to Ethnicity/Race course.

The Starting Line
So you are probably wondering why this post is in sections. Well I’d like to bring this into focus so that you can understand where I am coming from and take the most out of this piece. Think of it as a race to the finish line in three distinct laps or sections. The Starting Line is the first section: it is the beginning and meant for clarification. The first lap is Race and Ethnicity: Classifiers. This section is used to provide a definition of race and ethnicity. It provides a basic understanding of the topics I am going to cover in the other sections. Lap number two is I Used to Speak in Stereotypes. In this section it deals with my identity on race and connects who I am with the stereotypes that are me. In this section it also discusses the stereotypes of other races and how stereotypes make people less than human. The final lap or section is I Judge in Colors Which Makes Me a Racist. In this section I talk in great detail about my personal experiences with race and how they have made me the person I am today. The final section is The Finish Line; in this section I tell where I am in the present day as well as wrap up the paper, finishing the race.

Race and Ethnicity: Classifiers
“Race refers to differences in biology; ethnicity refers to differences of culture and geographic origin” (Ferrante 410). There you have it; proof that these two words do not mean the same thing. At one time I believed they were interchangeable; however, with the help of this course I found out they are not. With the diversity of the world it has become impossible to judge someone solely by their skin color to figure out their race and guess at their ethnicity. Blacks are mixed with whites, whites with Hispanics the list goes on and on making the one bubble for race on the census a flawed and failing design.

“Webster’s Dictionary defines race as any of the major biological divisions of mankind, distinguished by color and texture of hair, color of skin and eyes, stature, bodily proportions, etc.” (Ferrante 410). This however, is not my definition of race. If one wants to accept a dictionary’s stuffy view as the only truth, they are missing the main picture. Race to me is skin color but not just the pigment that we see but also the colors that are hidden. A lot of the population would agree with this view: “Most people in the United States equate race with physical features. In their minds racial categories are assumed to represent ‘natural, physical divisions among humans that are hereditary, reflected in morphology and roughly but correctly captured by terms like black, white, and Asian” (Ferrante 113). I like this view because the majority of America goes along with it. Yet, it’s flawed. Where does it say mixed races? Nowhere at all! Going back to what I said earlier, races are mixed and not cut and dry any more. People have sex; look at your parents, your friends, or your neighbors. Is not one of them mixed of different races? Of course one is! Thus race is a slippery slope that is diverse. Right now I am confused on how to sum up race. Yet, the best way I found is to accept everyone and look past the skin color because you don’t know what races that person is and what’s it to you anyway? So what if the person is black, white or Asian! They are still a person nonetheless. Yet, for all those who want a clear distinction of race here is one for you: “Race is simply a way in which one group designates itself as ‘insiders’ and other groups as ‘outsiders’ to reinforce or enforce its wishes and/or ideas in social, economic, and political realms” (Ferrante 384).

On to ethnicity which to me is merely another word for where your grandparents and their grandparents were born. Yet “Webster’s Dictionary defines the term ‘ethnic’ as designating any of the basic divisions or groups of mankind, as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, etc.” (Ferrante 411). I believe in today’s time it is just another word that allows you to go deeper into your roots. Not merely stopping at I am American, but going farther and saying I am German, Irish, and English. However, this word causes problems also. If you look to the past with the Armenian Genocide and World Wars, ethnicity played a factor. These conflicts were over what ethnicity you were. Religion also played a role in ethnicity which can be seen in the Armenian Genocide as well as within World War II. Ethnicity has become nationalism by supporting ones own country. However, this view soon turns into a battle over religion as well as ethnicity. If someone is from Germany and is Muslim, they are German. However they don’t fit into the mold of white and Christian, thus it makes ethnicity a hot bed for trouble. One also has to look at ethnicity as being born in that country. So if I was born in China, but live in America with American parents, technically I am Chinese American, because I was born in that country. Yet, would the Chinese accept me as one? Certainly not, because I am not Chinese looking which goes back into race itself. Yet, for the sake of argument here’s another more cut and dry definition of ethnicity.

Social scientists use the term ethnicity very broadly. It can refer to people who share (or believe they share) a national origin; a common ancestry; place of birth; distinctive and visible social traits such as religious practice, style of dress, body ornaments, or language; and/or socially important physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and/or physical build. (Ferrante 215)

So it all comes down to you choosing your own ethnicity. You are born into certain groups such as German, Italian, Scottish, Irish, etc. Yet, if you want to “join” a Muslim ethnicity no one can stop you. Ethnicity is like a “choose your own ending” story. You choose what you want to believe your ethnicity is or should be and what it is not. It’s entirely your choice, no one’s but yours.

I believe the best way to describe these concepts is that race and ethnicity run on a slippery slope. They both can inter-mingle with each other, which allows them to cause conflict and spread hatred. This hatred is not just because someone is a certain race or ethnicity. It is solely because we let stereotypes take control and then let them brew in us and slip out in times of anger or just in general. The best way to end this is that race and ethnicity are two diseases within society that can plague us if we give into the notion that one race or ethnicity is better than another race or ethnicity.

I Used to Speak in Stereotypes
As I sit and ponder the question of my identity, ideas and thoughts bounce off my brain like a ping pong ball. I question as to where do I start and what do I write. Then I think just shut up and write, let the words speak for themselves to explain who I am. This is what I initially thought. Looking back on it again I realized that I should side-step my identity and be honest with everyone. I believe in stereotypes and use them against people everyday. I judge people and so does every person we meet or see within our life. I am sitting here in Saint Lucia writing this where I have been stereotyped by the locals. Being white as well as American means that I am rich, am going to freely give anyone who asks: free money, always is in need of a taxi, and smokes Cuban cigars, wrong! Thus I ask you to think the same how many times do you judge people on looks or color? Every day and every new person we meet or see we subject them to our underlying stereotypes.

Getting back to my identity. I am a white American, and I am proud of that. In this I am not saying I am going to run off and join the Klan; I am saying I am a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities blended into me. Every American young or old is just like me, not in features or color but in experience. We are all the grandchildren of yesteryear. However, I am a stereotype! You are a stereotype; every person is a stereotype and has an identity. However some would like to disagree with me and say that if you’re not a stereotype you don’t have an identity. I back this up with a quote from the novel Tropic of Orange: “And considering someone like herself--so distant from the Asian female stereotype--it was questionable if she even has an identity” (Yamashita 19). Everyone has an identity, everyday and every experience carves out our identity. Stereotypes do not make us who we are. Go look at yourself in the mirror and look at who you are; if your white, black, Asian, or mixed you are still you. Identity is who you are. Me I would like to identify myself as a student at SUNY Fredonia. You may not think this is part of me, but really it is. Going to Fredonia molded me into what I am today. If I would have gone somewhere else I would in essence be a different person and could have a very different identity. I would also identify myself as an upstate New Yorker, which means I live on a farm and don’t conform to the New York City life style. Finally I identify myself as a man, which is clearly obvious by now.

Reader, please note that I didn’t identify myself by my ethnicities. I personally feel that they are not that important in explaining to you who I am, but I feel that since I am an American my past should be touched on. I am Irish and English and German. I am a white American which would be a category on the census. However I am not just the white American, I am me. Do I have friends who don’t fit into the white category? Indeed I do! Do I have cousins who are African American? Indeed I do! Yet, when I say that I am white American can I be so sure that I am completely white American? Dusk of Dawn brings this into perspective with the quote “Later, in the high school, there came some rather puzzling distinctions which I can see now were social and racial; but the racial angle was more clearly defined against the Irish than against me. It was a matter of income and ancestry more than color” (Du Bois 14). Am I truly white then, if at one time in America being Irish was being a sub-species of whiteness? No, I was a half-white in the 1900s but today I am clearly seen as white. This means that my identity would be greatly different back then as compared to now because of stereotypes.

However, my identity is not the only one that had been plagued by stereotypes; thus in order to diversify my paper I am going to bring out other stereotypes, ones of Whites, Blacks, Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. I would like to first start off with whites. Andrea Kim writes about white discrimination within Hawaii in “Born and Raised in Hawaii, But Not Hawaiian”: “It was like senior corner, Hawaiian corner, and for the whites, we called them haole (means foreigner, and usually applies to white people) corner” (Ferrante 43). We can see here that even white people can be the minority within different cultures and areas. This proves that no one is exempt from stereotypes.

The next would be that of the Chinese. In California the Chinese were banned from the state in 1872 due to these stereotypes. “Burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State” (Ferrante 308). However, in 1952 this law was repealed. It just shows us that uncontrolled stereotypes can lead to banning and hatred of a certain type of people, because they were believed to have diseases and were predestined to become homeless as well as vile people. This just goes along with how one person who aligns to a stereotype can ruin an entire race.

Blacks too faced stereotypes throughout their history, even in court cases with the trial of Guy v. Daniel where it was argued “[T]hat as a slave she must be black, because only blacks are slaves” (Ferrante 177). This is a clear stereotype against anyone of African origins because other cultures have enslaved people of different races not just ones who were black. Another clear defined stereotype is that all black men are dangerous. In “Apologizing for Being a Black Male” Paul Dawkins tells about being black and the stereotypes that come with it especially around white women. “Sometimes I catch myself slowing down as I walk to my car in a parking lot if there’s a White woman heading to a nearby car ... I either reach loudly for and obviously for my keys, or hold back until she is safely in her car, for fear that she thinks I’m a potential rapist, purse snatcher, or carjacker” (Ferrante 68). These stereotypes are still out there and can happen to anyone of any race, that’s what we as humans have to see. Our identity is filled with stereotypes and it is not just racial, it is also stereotypes of one particular country.

Japanese during World War II were subjected to stereotypes by Americans. They “[D]escribed the Japanese as ‘hissing’, a snakelike impression where witting or not” (Dower 84). This was not the only stereotype that was given to Japan “[T]he most common caricature of the Japanese by Westerners, writers and cartoonists alike, was the monkey or ape” (Dower 84). Stereotypes were used to identify people that were Japanese to dehumanize their identity. Americans were viewed much in the same way in Japanese eyes. “The demon or devil was in fact probably the most popular Japanese characterization of the English and American enemy” (Dower 236). We as humans face the same problems and stereotypes of days gone by. Yet we have to look into ourselves and seek forgiveness because stereotypes can be expelled. “The abrupt transition from a merciless racist war to an amicable postwar relationship was also facilitated by the fact that the same stereotypes that fed super patriotism and outright race hate were adaptable to cooperation” (Dower 302). This allowed for the Americans to accept the Japanese as friends and comrades. The Japanese too changed their stereotypes of Americans upon the completion of the war. They finally saw Americans as just people not as killers. “The Americans were not demons, as the Japanese discovered when they were not raped, tortured, and murdered as wartime propaganda and rumors had forecast” (Dower 301).

My identity is plagued with stereotypes but that is what makes me the person I am today. It also makes me who I am and when I prove those stereotypes wrong I am breaking the tensions of hatred; as well as infusing my identity within the building blocks of progress. The less I judge on predetermined stereotypes the less others judge me on mine thus allowing for a mutual respect of culture, identity, and personhood to take a stronghold. Also the friends I keep as well as the relationships I have, and the things I do all make up my identity and shape me into who I am. I guess through all my rambling my main point is that I’m a male college student from New York who is unique just like everyone else in the world. I am the melting pot of America and my identity is the past, the present, and the future to come!

I Judge in Colors Which Makes Me a Racist
Having traveled to South Africa, Bulgaria, as well as numerous other places in the world, I have been embraced with the feeling of acceptance from the people within these countries. They have accepted me with open arms and I with them. Yet when I return back to America I transform into a racist and I judge people by their race, skin color, and actions. Is it wrong? Yes! Does it dehumanize them? Yes! Do these people not bleed the same blood as me? Yes they do! In my experiences in America, people cast judgments on the past as well as play the race card; whereas in other places of the world people cast judgments based on knowing a person and talking to them.

“A stigma is an attribute that is deeply discrediting. That is, when someone possesses a stigma, he or she is reduced in the eyes of others from a multi-faceted person to a person with one tainted status” (Ferrante 21). We as Americans possess stigmas. An example of this is I work for a cell phone company in the mall; I also have a black male co-worker. All of us like to go to the cookie store to get cheap pops and such. One day he asked me to go get him one. Upon going over to the cookie shop the girl asked me who the pop was for and I told her the black individual’s name and she said “Can I spit in it?” I replied “No, I work with this guy!” Clearly one can see that racism runs true even within the youth of today even in Northern States. A couple times at work I was told by that same black kid that I “was going as Hitler for Halloween” and “You look like a Nazi with your new haircut.” I cannot think of another better example of being dehumanized because of color. This is not the only example of dehumanization within America. When we look at World War II, as an example, we see the in-human treatment of Japanese Americans. “For many Japanese- Americans, the verbal stripping of their humanity was accompanied by humiliating treatment that reinforced the impression of being less than human” (Dower 82). Yet, when we look at other countries they speak in acceptance not in colors.

I would now like to begin with South Africa. Upon getting on the plane and not knowing from Adam who anyone was, to leaving the country with people whom to this day I still talk to is quite an experience in itself. The people in the group itself were diverse. Me being white and from the north, I was outnumbered by Southerners. Not only white southerners but also African Americans, which was odd at first I will admit. I didn’t have any black friends before the trip so this was a different experience for me. Skipping ahead I talked to these people, I bonded with these people, and I became friends with these people. This really opened my eyes. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. We went to orphanages where children had AIDS. The sadness was indescribable. Yet that’s not the point. The kids didn’t see a skin color they saw a playmate. When we did activities with them they saw us, for us, not any preconceived notion of what an American is. I guess what it comes down to is they had play in their eyes and innocence in their heart. We went also to the slums where people lived in basically shacks. The people invited us into their homes and saw us not as a money sign, but as people. This I feel was a great and amazing way to break the tensions that breed hate and racist views within our society. They didn’t cast the race card stone and thus I never had to respond by defending my white race. All I had to do was smile, play, and be happy.

The next racial experience was going to Bulgaria. In essence I was going alone, not knowing anyone from the school and I was nervous. It was a whole new world, experience, and a four-month journey. What it became was probably for now, what I consider the best time of my life. It was an amazing experience. The people there, just like in South Africa were accepting and caring. They treated everyone with respect and dignity. However, they did hate gypsies and their notions of gypsies soon turned into my bias. This is where I would like to throw a twist into this paper and counter balance with a negative experience that I witnessed while in Bulgaria. I was coming back from the school and walking down the trail back to the dorms. By one of the news paper stands there was a gypsy who I believe was whacking off or peeing. As I passed, I tightened up a little and continued to the dorms. Thinking nothing of it, I decided to chill at the RA's desk, when I saw a girl I was friends with come in battered and bruised. What had happened to her was that the gypsy that was shining his rocks at the stand attacked her and tried to rape her or take advantage of her. This really cemented my view on gypsies. it also made me hate gypsies. The problem of this racism is it kills a part of the victim; whether or not the gypsy did it because she was white or just because, she was still a victim of racism. “As Tori Morrison writes: The trauma of racism is, for the racist and the victim, the severe fragmentation of the self” (Ferrante 301).

As much as we think that other countries have it as bad as America, we are wrong. The race card is still played everyday within many different contexts within America. Calling a person mulatto is racist because it means “young mule”. It also “tells us once again sexual union between the two groups will not go unpunished” (Ferrante 306). This means that we cannot intermingle with different races because it is punishable as well as wrong. Being white is no different that being black, I have come to realize as Du Bois pointed out in Dusk of Dawn, “White people were just the same as I: their physical possibilities, their mental processes were no different than mine; even the difference in skin color was vastly overemphasized and intrinsically trivial” (Du Bois 136). It is not only color these days; it is symbols that have been used to play the race card. On our discussion board the topic of the noose was discussed and how this one woman was forced to take down a Halloween noose because it was racist. Things have gone too far! Was that noose meant to harm black people? No, in the context of Halloween purposes, it meant no harm. Yet the race card was thrown in just to bring out attention. It disgusts me on how people in America have to use paltry examples to beat a dead horse. Everyone is equal under the constitution. Thus maybe it is time we follow the examples of other countries and step up to the plate by letting race be a thing of the past.

These personal experiences show that most people are good and accepting. However, there are some racial groups that refuse to conform to their countries’ laws and live outside the box or still play the race card. Which is fine, however, what it really shows and breeds is hatred between people. Yet, in America it is more pronounced and the race card is played more often. The race card is something that is entirely bull shit in this day and age and is no longer needed in America. In the end we have to take the good with the bad and draw our own conclusions based on our own experiences and use the experiences of others as guides not as God given facts.

The Finish Line
Where I am today is that I still think in predetermined stereotypes and judge people by the color of their skin. Yet, I am still working on acceptance. My process is more or less like going to rehab I have to get my notions extinguished before I can ever be clean. I still hate gypsies, say derogatory words about peoples of different color but that’s my battle I have to face. Yet I think the best way for me to cure my cancer of stereotypes is by throwing myself into a foreign environment and weeding out the good from the bad. I plan to be an English teacher and teach out of the United States. The sole reason is my acceptance of race cannot be resolved if racism is still within sight within the United States. My cure for my racism is by taking a step back and teaching as well as working with students in different countries these experiences will provide me a foundation for acceptance. This will nullify my racist views; thus allowing me to come back to the United States to teach without any bias of race making my classroom a zone for peace and tolerance. I stand here now naked and exposed to the elements, as well as judgments of you the reader. Before you cast your stone, explore into yourself as to who you really are deep inside. I guarantee you too will be standing naked, next to me, upon your realization that you also pass judgments and have biases.


Works Cited
Dower, John W. War without Mercy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

Du Bois, W.E.B. Dusk of Dawn. London: Transaction Publishers, 1997.

Ferrante, Joan and Prince Brown Jr., eds. The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Second Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Yamashita, Karen Tei. Tropic of Orange. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1997.

A Proud Jamaican--Not African American--on Race in America

I am a proud Jamaican. Born and grown in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1988. The same year hurricane Gilbert devastated the country. You can say I’m West Indian, you can say I’m black. Don’t call me African American because I am in America only for school.

According to the story of slavery in Jamaica, people my skin colour would be considered a mulatto. This was the race brought about when white slave owners raped black slave women. It is a name given to mixed race children. But now, at home they call most people like me ‘brownin.’ That is a light skinned black person. The reason I’m light skinned is that my grandfather was white and one of my grandmothers was half Indian.

My identity was never an issue at home. Many say that “you are known be the company you keep.” Others say “ Birds of a feather flock together” That was never a part of my identity. My friends were always a wide variety of people so their personalities never affected me.

I am energetic, I can be loud and I enjoy dancing. There is a love in me for my Jamaican roots and music. Music was implanted in my blood from birth. I love the Jamaican food and culture and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Along with my love for my country and all in it, I also love art. I am known one of the few art majors in the black community of school I now attend. I love being creative. Ever since I was in school at the age of around 7 or 8 my mother used to complain. She would tell me that art is not all that matters in school, other subjects need my attention as well. Obviously I gave art my all. I am now a proud art major here to represent my country in the ever-growing art world.

The issue of race never bothered me and didn’t have any effect on the way I did or ever had to do things. Coming to America two years ago is the first time the issue was placed directly in front of me. I spent a year in Long Island doing grade 12 just to get used to the American education system. I was placed in a room with room mate from Hong Kong, as well as the fact that blacks were the minority as well. Take in mind I’m from Jamaica almost everyone is black. The only whites I have had to really interact with were tourists. Now, I'm in Fredonia, and again I’m a part of the minority. It’s weird for me, being brought up in an all-black country and then being thrown into two schools where I feel a bit out of place at times. Something as simple as the classes/courses I take per semester feels so uncomfortable at time because I would look around and see that I am the only black person in the whole class.

The Intro to Ethnicity and Race class was joined because the topic sounded interesting and I wanted a class I could look forward to during the week. I was also hoping that giving the name of the course, there would be a diverse student body. I walked in at 8 o’clock on the first Tuesday morning of the semester to be disappointed. Once again, im the only black person in the class! I was shocked. Nothing can totally explain how I felt.

Being in the tiny town of Fredonia I have experienced racism first hand. Racism has many definitions, the most common and widely accepted being the belief that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. I have never felt like that before. I was in a store in the area with my now ex-boyfriend looking for an outfit for an event that was happening on campus. There was a little old white woman in the tie section of the store. While walking towards the ties we noticed that she held her handbag closer and tightly to her chest and then left the left the area with great urgency. This shocked us, seeing that we are both Jamaicans and had never experienced racism in our lives. We laughed it off and said to ourselves, “Well I guess we have the whole section to ourselves.” But it really hurt us deeply so we never discussed among ourselves. There had also been one and two occasions in Walmart where people stepped aside when they saw us coming.

Despite those situations I have seen blacks at home treat whites better than the treat their own people. This upsets me because it sort of goes back to the days of slavery where white were at the top of the social ladder. One Saturday my friends and I were in Pizza Hut and we had ordered our food and were talking and laughing among ourselves. A group of white tourists walked in, and not too long after they had taken their seats the waitress yelled across the room and told us to shut up. This action was all because the whites were there. I have also witnessed people shopping and the white customer/tourist gets more assistance and attention from sales clerks. Sad but true.

Race is, as mentioned in the textbook, an illusion. We are all the same. Race is based on a social construction. Its seems, though, as if it is biological. Different people have different facial features, skin colour, body type, etc. We are also born in different countries and speak different languages. The issue of race in my opinion, was brought about by social standing and just people being ignorant and making assumptions.

Over the period of the semester I have realized a lot of things. Race as defined by dictionary.com is ‘a group of persons related by common descent or heredity, any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.’

Genetics is closely linked to race and this I didn’t notice until this class. The definition of genetics is ‘the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.’

Both definitions are closely linked. That was not expected. But the funny thing is that without genetics race may not exist. But according to Spencer Wells we are all 99.9% similar where genetics is concerned. We were all, whether we want to admit it or not, descendants of people from Africa. Prince Brown says, “current scientific investigations using genetic research and fossilized remains indicate that all modern humans evolved in Africa and migrated from there to the rest of the world.” This percentage though, contradicts Prince Brown, who states our genes are only 75% identical regardless of the population to which they are assigned.

Despite the many similarities among humans and races according to genetics a lot more contributes to our differences. Blacks were once slaves and people still believe they act as slaves to themselves.

This article stood out to me because it set aside black people aside and looked at their faults in their lives today. To some it may be stereotyping, but it is completely true. The author though is unknown. But the message has been passed over the internet over a number of years:

For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES

We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com , not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).

Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.

They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them "Status" or that they have achieved their Dream.

They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities.

With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life.

Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote
their name without making any real change in their community.

They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)

They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!”

From what I know, other races do not have this problem. And I can only speak from experience. The idea that black people don’t read is a problem all in itself. And this expands into other countries as well. Jamaica has the same problem. The money spending aspect of it spread all across American and even into the Caribbean. Blacks are known to spend so much money it is almost sickening.

A lot may take offence to this article but the truth hurts. It may not apply to all blacks but the majority spoils the bunch. We may not be slaves as we were years ago but instead, as the article states, slaves to ourselves. Admitting it is the first way to get over it.

Another problem that we are slaves to the whole situation of calling each other ‘niggers’ ‘bitches’ and ‘whores.’ It is a huge problem if white person calls us any of those names but is it ok if another black person does the same thing?

Whore is a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse, usually for money. Now black women, especially black American woman take it as a habit to call each other by this name as it is okay.

Bitch is a malicious, unpleasant, selfish woman. A bitch can also be described as a lewd woman; this is another word commonly used in the black community. But if ever used to them by another race sparks major problems.

Nigger: this word has seen leaps and boundaries like none other. Dictionary.com states that it is a “term is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War.”

Personally this doesn’t affect me and never really has. But just the fact that it offends people so much, I think, to be on the safe side, the word should not be used. People have died over the use of this word but the scandals and disrespectfulness does not stop. Again it goes back to the point that black people can be so ignorant at times.

I am black and I am proud of it and should be. But little things and situations like the one mentioned in the essay make me sad and the disappointment never stops.

Again, we are all the same in this world, all from one place with one common ancestor. The race issue is what we make it. It’s things we do as different cultures that make us see race as a big difference. Attitudes and lifestyles, class and education, that what causes race. We are all human beings and that is the fact. We all have two eyes, ears, hands, and feet. All have DNA but just in different orders. Race is what we make it. Genetics is a part of it but only a speck.