Reflective Essay On Race And Ethnicity

My initial or immediate reaction to the lesson on race and ethnicity through our lecture, readings, individual and group participation was slightly surprising. I discovered I didn’t consider myself the same as society classified me. This discovery was actually rather frustrating. I don’t want to be known only as a 34-year-old, Caucasian, female. I don’t want to be aggregated or perceived as someone who is lumped into the same category as everyone else. I want to be perceived as I see myself, with all of the facets I consider to be what makes me who I am. I don’t want society to tell me who I am by forcing everyone into the same limited pre-made descriptions. I feel that we as individuals are losing our individualities by conforming
My family didn’t believe they were literally better than anyone else or think they were superior. It was more like an enormous amount of pride. I feel my pride can be misjudged as arrogance. This again causes a vicious cycle of unnecessary classifications. I automatically feel the need to defend my cultural heritage if I am misjudged by someone in the target group. I have a lot of pride in what my family did for our country. I have researched my heritage back to the revolutionary war and found a patriot that fought for our freedom. My family has worked hard to get where they are today and I believe that everyone has the same potential to succeed. As I stated above, the only prejudice I automatically feel is when I am reminded of the individuals that caused me harm. So the scales need rebalanced and everyone needs to be able to start with a clean slate, but this isn’t a perfect world and there may always be an initial instinctual prejudice toward individuals or social groups that are outside our comfort zone. Again, I am confident I will improve with further education, training, and professional