Race Is A Four Letter Word By Teja Arbodela Summary

The Skin

Do you look how you are "supposed" to look? Or act like you are "supposed" to act? I for one, do not. In today's society, there are people believe that they can read you instantly, based on your appearance. Just look at all the television shows about how to look your best, how to make the perfect first impression, all around teaching society today that it really is about how you look. In Teja Arbodela's essay, "Race is a Four Letter Word", he discusses his life experience involving racial discrimination. He also deals with the topic of stereotyping, and how he has coped with such complications. Although some people believe otherwise, they cannot always see who you are by how you look or how you act. Arboleda's experiences with
stereotyping and racial discriminated started young as he wrote in "Race is a Four Letter Word": "My brother Miguel and I became curiosity factors when we appeared in public with her."(pg.
121)
Whenever Arboleda and his brother (who are Philipino and German) were seen with their full
German mother, people would not initially see that she was indeed their mother. I have had experiences identical to Arboleda's. Being of Black, Japanese, and Mexican heritage, I have a very different appearance than my Black and Japanese father. Whenever my father was a chaperone on a field trip, or I forgot to grab my lunch, he would appear. Instantly, the whisperings of "Who IS that?" could be plainly heard. Once they connected the dots, the following question would be "That's your DAD?". It seems that people don’t really think about the effects the words may have before they speak. In elementary school, you were always shown people who looked alike to be the iconic family. They never showed a Black man with a little Asian girl standing next to him, standing next to a Mexican woman who is holding a little boy who doesn't look like any of them, labeled as "Family". In explaining how he conforms to society, Arboleda write: "Over adapting to new acculturation has become second nature to me, as my father and mother eagerly fed me culture." (pg.
121) Over adapting, or acculturation, is one of the ways that Arboleda has dealt with different environments and the people residing in them. Acculturation is an effective method of coping with discrimination, but not necessarily stereotyping. It also may turn others against you because they believe that you have sold out. The term “sold out, ” means that you have discarded your past affiliation with a certain group and taken on the false persona of another lifestyle. It seems that no matter how you act, there is always discrimination under your feet, either from being undermined by ethnocentric people, or from the others who think you have sold out. Acculturation doesn’t allow you to avoid stereotyping because stereotyping still highly involves appearance rather than your attitude or what you sound like. The future of stereotyping and racism can do one of two things, rise or fall. Arboldea writes: "In the next 20 years, the average American will no longer be technically White (Caucasian). This will be reflected in the media, in the workplace, and in the schools, not out of charitable interest, but out of necessity." (pg.122)
America is multicultural now, but it will be more than ever before in the near future. Like mentioned before, racism and discrimination will rise or fall. If it rises, it could tear America as we know it apart. There will most likely be such a demand for categorization that it will separate U.S. citizens dramatically and may even alter the borders of our U.S of A. Alternatively, if racism and discrimination were to fall, it would positively change Americans and possibly deny the need for categorization by a racial designation. Arboleda, Teja. "Race is a Four-Letter Word" from "Race of Shadow" (1998)