CONCLUSION. Ethnicity still source of social identity. Active, politicised identity (Bradley). Still discrimination but recently celebration of diversity. Blurring – perhaps. Ethnicities may well be evolving. Not completely free choice.…
thoughts on racial identity, the role of race in society, Obama, and America’s rapidly growing,…
In Bonnie Tsui’s, Choose Your Own Identity, she discusses the flexibility that lays within racial identity. In Tsui’s essays she states that even though our race has such a huge roll in the way we make our political and societal decisions, racial identity has become fluid. In her mind, we are making a come back and prioritizing the importance of who we identify as, rather than focusing on what we are. In Tsui’s own words, “In a strange way, the renewed fluidity of racial identity is a homecoming of sorts, to a time before race - and racism - was institutionalized.” (Tsui, 2)…
Contrasting two very different schools in different cities in the same region, the book argues that white racial identity formation must be understood by reference to processes of, "(1) association with people of color; (2) 'us-them' boundary making processes; (3) the…
For many centuries, race has been a huge topic that people discuss about, whether talking about education, occupation, politics, or human rights. America was settled with Native-Americans, but after Columbus discovered American land, there were many Europeans travelling there. However, it did not end there, many years later upper-class settlers started bringing in slaves from African-American descent. That is when interracial relationships started to happen. Brodkin, Buck, Omi and Winant in their essays illustrate racial formations, interracial relationships, and how white people can be privileged in recent days.…
Matthew Frye Jacobson’s introduction of his book Whiteness of a Difference Color delves into the topic of race from a very different perspective than what one would might expect. Instead of discussing the topic about people of color, he writes about the history of racial classification of whites in America along with how the conception and perception of race is always changing. The first example he provides us is with a Gentle women and the debate over Jews’ racial identity, although they are white, what white racial sub group do they belong in-- the Caucasian or Semite? This conversation reveals the exact logical fallacies in our perception of race. He then touches upon other groups that immigrated from their homeland to America. These individuals came to america as “free white persons” but due to naturalization laws, they technically were not put into that category. With that noted, over time these immigrants were finally able to be included in the definition of what we know as white today. Jacobson’s argues that although white people come from different backgrounds and have different ethnicities, we are conditioned to recognize…
“Race is a cultural construct, but one with deadly social causes and consequences” (Lipsitz 2). In his book, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics, George Lipsitz argues that it is in the best interest of white Americans to “invest in whiteness, to remain true to an identity that provides them with resources, power, and opportunity (Lipsitz vii).” Lipsitz’s book gives a substantial amount of evidence to show America’s investment in whiteness with historical facts, stories, and statistics. Although at times Lipsitz’s arguments are biased and hard to reference, because overall he gives competent, emotional, and logical evidence, it does not deter from his main argument that Americans do indeed have an investment in whiteness and his assertion that it is the duty of every person of color to take action to rid of this investment.…
• “Germans are the largest ancestral group in the United States; the 2008 census showed that about 17 percent of Americans saying they had at least some German ancestry. Although most German Americans are assimilated, it is possible to see the ethnic tradition in some areas. In Milwaukee, they have a population that is 48 percent German ancestry” (University of Phoenix, 2011, p. 117). The text also goes on to say that Germany is just one of 20 European nations from which at least 1 million people claim to have ancestry in the United States. There are also more than 36 million Irish Americans, and the Republic of Ireland had a population of 4 million in 2008. From the staggering facts on the populations of certain immigrants that made up the majority of the population for many years. Race is socially constructed, as we learned in Chapter 1. Sometimes we come to define our race by the majority even when of a mixed race. People who are the children of an African American and Mexican American are biracial or “mixed,” They come to be seen by others by whatever has been socially constructed to their best interest. In today’s society, what it means to be White in the United States has really changed. All of the different immigrants and biracial mixes has put the white people classification in the minority classification.…
The essay by Eric Lui, “notes of a native speaker” spoke about his experiences growing up as an Asian American male in the united states. Growing up, He had to face stereotypes and tried to overcome them all as time went on, so much he later felt he lost his identity of who he really was. He says in the essay “here are some ways you can say that I am white:” and then follows with a list of things that most Caucasian people do or wear on a everyday basis that he now does regularly. Things like wearing khakis or even being married to a white woman were on his list. He mentions this list because now people consider Eric to be a “Honorary White” because of his achievements and hobbies. During his time as a kid, he would have problems hooking up with girls around him or hanging out with certain people because of his Asian background. They would just see him as my “Asian friend” or as a math wiz. He hated that he went through this and time and time again he tried fighting the stereotypes of being Asian. He did things like taking his bowl hair cut style (the average hairstyle of a Asian boy) and cut it all off into a buzz cut and he later says, he was “playing the orchestra but also joined the wrestling team, winning science prizes but also editing the school paper”. He called himself the “renaissance boy” but only was seen as a “Asian overachiever”. The struggles Lui went through in his essay takes you step by step into how hard it is to create your own identity in a would where your just a representative of your ethnic group and the risks that come with trying to rid yourself from…
Throughout U.S. history race has proven time and time again to be a focal point of many countries’ issues and conversations. As time has changed so have the definitions of who is white. In Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race, Matthew Frye Jacobsen argues that the idea of race and whiteness has changed rapidly in U.S. history because of the strength it holds to serve as tool of power. In short Jacobsen’s argument is that race is a social construct and not a biological fact, Jacobsen shows how this premise is applied to the Irish throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Essentially the label as a social construct could and was both applied and even denied when needed to serve political purpose.…
The face of America has slowly, but surely, changed over the course of sixty years. America’s schools, sixty years ago, were predominantly white and most teachers were white as well. If one thinks that America is still mostly white, they would be sadly mistaken with immigration numbers at all time highs. America has become the most culturally diverse nation in the world. With every passing year, it seems immigration numbers continue to rise. As these numbers have begun to rise over the past years it has begun to change the way Americans live their everyday life. Used to when one says an “American” individual you would think of a white person, however this is no longer the case. America is becoming the world’s melting…
Biologically speaking, it’s just as possible for a given white person in Florida to have genetics similar to his neighbor down the street as it would be for the same white person to have genetics similar to a black person in Nigeria. We could just as easily disregard skin color and pay attention to hair and/or eye color. Sociologists make this claim because they argue that the definition of what constitutes a race is something that is arbitrarily decided by society. Additionally, what it means to classify yourself or someone else as a particular race carries social meaning. Sociologist claims that race as a biological concept does not exist. However, the consequences of classifying someone as a certain race as certainly real enough. It needs to be said, though, that not every discipline agrees that race is merely a social construct. Forensic psychology absolutely identifies at least three racial categories. Some geneticists and epidemiologists also recognize race as a legitimate biological category. Race can be biological and socially constructed at the same time. The big difference is sociologists emphasize social definitions and meanings, rather than the biological aspects of race.…
2 Biracial Identity and Discrimination It is generally accepted that the United States is a multicultural country made up of a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. In modern history interactions of the different ethnic backgrounds has became an acceptable social activity. These social interactions have created a multitude of interracial relationships and marriages that have been increasing yearly. These interracial relationships and…
References: Steinberg, Stephen. The Ethnic Myth: Race, Ethnicity and Class in America. January 16, 2001. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.…
African American teens tend to racially group amongst themselves because race has been a central theme throughout American history; from the Constitution to the Civil War to the denial of African American citizenship and social participation. Tatum (2003) noted in her essay, “Why are all the Black Children Sitting together in the Cafeteria?” an excerpt from our textbook, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader (2008), that ‘racial grouping begins by the sixth and seventh grades’ (p. 359). Right about the time puberty begins questions of identity for all teens generally surface. For African American teens, these questions also include ‘Who am I ethnically and racially?’ In addition, Tatum (2003) suggests, “African American teens are forced to look at themselves through a racial lens because the rest of the world does” (p. 360 ). For example, racial profiling sends a very clear message. During adolescence, race becomes more personal and noticeable for the African American student. Finding the answers to questions like, ‘What does it mean to be a young African American?’ ‘How should I act?’ ‘What should I do?’ are all important questions, for Black teens, but the last thing they want to do is ask their parents (pp. 359-364). So, they turn to their peers for the answers. Therefore, African American children resort to self-segregation as a coping mechanism against racism. “They turn to each other for support they are not likely to receive anywhere else. Sometimes their White peers are the perpetrators of racism and if they are not; they are unprepared to respond supportively.” (p. 364). Education in African American studies would be beneficial in helping White teens understand their African American peers. Connecting yourself with people who look like you is only natural; it is a part of growing up and important to your identity development process.…