Stereotypes: A Personal Analysis

From my experience, being an Asian basketball player leads to many different stereotypes without factual basis, such as one cannot shoot or dribble a basketball well enough. In contrast, during my four years of high school basketball, I became the all time leading point-scorer at the school and graduated holding nine records for basketball along with four varsity letters. In the wide generalization of Asian athletes, I have not performed well in this scenario and would be cast out as an anomaly. Lastly, I extend that the general identity categories I am placed in can relay valuable information about myself such as importance I place in education, the belief system of hard work, and the values from being racially diverse, but do not fully shape
or define who I am based on my performances of some characteristics or actions. While my individual or internal identity can associate with the general identity of who I am, both factors play an ultimate role in the development of myself and how the world sees me. In conclusion, the role of general or external identity categories can lead to misconceptions in regards to distinct individuals, but also allows for the world to become more intelligible in each specific group or subset of cultures.
This idea of my identity varies in many ways from what the world or society defines me as in terms of a racially diverse American, but simultaneously allows me to be a unique individual in making my own choices through performative actions. It is this expression of choice and action, whether through what food I eat or holidays I celebrate, that allows me to become individualized and thus non conforming to normal standards of a basketball player or biracial citizen. In essence, society groups me into certain roles of being an Asian-Caucasian American and basketball player, but ultimately my individual identity determines whether I express this subjection. This struggle of a general identity against personal identity remains not so much a battle, but more of a connection into which these two identities are intertwined to define who I am or what performative actions I should adhere to based on larger cultural identities. This narrative coincides with society’s viewpoints of an Asian-Caucasian American and basketball player in the external belief that I am different, can only uphold one racial identity and cannot be uber athletic, but the contrast from my individual identity as a racially-diverse citizen, who remains a competitive basketball player, and can assimilate and also dissociate with the norms of society. Ultimately, the cultural subjects of being an Asian-Caucasian athlete confers communicative messages about how I should be inferred or viewed upon by society, but also allow for the individualization of performative actions in terms of standing out or being different than the rest of my identity
category.