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During
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)…
Today, race is seen less as culture and history and more as your intelligence, wealth, morals, and how you should act. Unfortunately, racism, stereotypes, and prejudice have been around so long it's become some what subconscious of us to pair actions and personalities with a skin color. In Princess Oreo Speaks Out by Dwan Carter, people around her are shocked by how she acts and even go as far as calling her “white” or “not black enough.” Carter states, “It seems that, for a lot of people around me, being black is an attitude.” In society today, people, especially young teens, are pressured to act a certain way based on how they look to feel accepted and ‘normal.’ A personality that may be perfectly fine if you were one race…
Reinforcing identity values, diversity, and notions of intersectionality, are all core issues facing contemporary society. In this current national political climate, the need for accepting diversity and valuing differences is at the top of the societal list. With movement after movement sprouting, people are looking for socially powerful leaders to lead them in the direction of societal and political reform. When minorities examine media sources and view the faces that represent their country, the rarity of individuals who share the same qualities is frightening. It is not simply about the diversity of the physicality, but about the diversity of those who are willing to enact a positive social change. It is to have…
The late great Maya Angelou once stated that “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends”. While her words indicate that our attitudes, cultures and values can define our differences she also suggest that we all embody a shared sense of humanity that we might come to understand through our interactions and acknowledgments of others around us. In the 21st century we have experienced an ever -increasing diverse population, the re-election of America’s first Black President, polarizing religion wars, and a more encompassing civil rights agenda that includes women’s and LGBTQ communities. So what if we asked ourselves “what does it mean to be diverse?” What are our investments in our diversity? What are our feelings and logical reasonings about diversity? More broadly, what does diversity mean for 21st century American culture? What role does contemporary social movements like Occupy Wall Street, #Blacklivesmatter and other protest movements play as we consider the meaning of diversity and difference? What is the role of the university in defining our discussions about diversity? Through critical reading, writing and thinking we will explore these questions in depth while engaging how diversity and difference shapes our attitudes about the economy, racial and ethnic difference, sexuality,…
Diversity is the way that everything and everybody is different. We all have various qualities that make us who we are. We all have our own individual set of qualities and we may share some of these with others we meet or have nothing in common at all. Diversity may be visible as in age or colour of skin or not immediately noticed until we have spent time with someone, this could include their religious beliefs or sexual orientation.…
Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a culture that was not inherited, thus putting behind the unique and significant characteristics of their own inherited culture. Therefore, in an African American society, a search for self identity is a pervasive theme.…
Have you ever been discriminated against because of the way you appear to others? Have you ever had to demonstrate moral courage because of the difference in your appearance? I know that I have had to do both based on stereotypes. For one, I am a “WOMAN” then on top of that I am an african american woman with naturally curly, short, “nappy” hair, I am “physically structured different than others”, I am an AFRICAN AMERICAN TEEN who is constantly under a microscope being picked apart because of my race, all due to a handful of individuals. A few stereotypes that I have heard were “every black person is soooo obnoxious”, “all they do is yell, fight and kill each other, and listen to rap music all day long”, “not one of them are smart, they’re all dumb and shouldn’t even have an education”…
Diversity explains the many different and varied ways people can be different to one another. These differences may be gender, whether a person is male or female. Their ethnic group, for example their cultural beliefs, race, language, attitudes, values or physical characteristics. Their age,…
What it means to be African American, belonging to a certain race, can no longer be taken for granted.. Still, the category "African American" provides a basis for social classification. African Americans men are recognized by their physical features and are treated accordingly. Many African Americans identify as African American; they share a social identity and outlook Frable, 1997; Cooper & Denner, 1998. Scholars have defined and measured aspects of this sense of racial identity: its salience, its centrality to the sense of self, the regard others hold for African Americans, what African Americans believe about the regard others hold for them, and beliefs about the role and status of African Americans (Sellers et al., 1998).…
Diversity is defined as real or supposed that the differences between people of different race, ethnic, origin, sex, age, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, religion, work, and family status, weight and appearance. The identity and other attributes that affect their interactions and connections. The definition of diversity includes real and perceived to recognize the social constructs many areas of difference. In particular, the race is a social construct, but the perception of race, beliefs about people of different races, and discrimination based on race strongly influences people lived. Similarly, gender is socially constructed, that is the perception of how men and women should behave, rather than being representative of biological differences between them that might cause them to behave differently. These beliefs about the differences between men and women strongly influence the experiences of men, women, boys and girls in society and organizations. For example, engineering, finance and general accounting, earn more and have a more professional status as managers of human resources.…
Developing in today's society and culture, I recently realized what it truly means to be a black women living in America. Going to a high school where I am a minority by all meanings of the word, I was not aware of how I was being perceived by other. This unknown ignorance helped me go through my first year of high school without faltering in knowing what I thought I stood for. My lack of understanding my role in society was why I felt a sense of false serenity about the stability of the world around me. It was not until the exposure of modern discrimination, which crept its way into the news or on social media, that I began noticing how my values in time of crisis for both the black and female community varied greatly from the students around…
Matriculating from a child into a young lady, the color of my skin often times influenced how I felt about myself and who I could be as an individual in society. As I sat in the front of the class at a predominately white school or walked down the hallways, I anticipated the moment that I would yet again be called another racial name- sometimes from those who looked similar to me but did not understand the essence of their doings. Reaching my final year in middle school, I began to define myself in a way that encompassed the names I was called. Instead of describing myself as the intellect I was or by my astounding level of accomplishments, I defined myself as someone who must be unfortunate to be African-American. Witnessing very few African-American women being presented in a positive manner in the news, learning my entire history and heritage in a single textbook chapter, and hearing demeaning words merely because of my dark skin tone inhibited me from seeing what roles I was capable of having in society. I often times asked…
Being a black woman, growing up on the southside of Chicago, IL in a single parent home, with little money but a strong faith in God and His word, are just a few factors that have had the greatest influence on the development of my worldview. Yes, factors like my race, gender, socio-economic status, geographical location, and beliefs have all played a majored role into how I see the world, live my life, behave as a wife, raise my children and treat others. If I eliminated any one of those factors in my life, I would not be who I am today. But to live a life with a past tense perspective based solely on one's previous experiences, would limit the growth and change one needs to advance and be productive in life. That is why it is just as important…
Looking at me you might wonder what I could possibly understand about diversity – middle class white male, college educated, married with two children, a boy and a girl. These broad generalizations describe me, but they do not define me; just as similar ones about others are equally uninformative. They note apparent features while failing to capture inherent uniqueness. To me, diversity encompasses respect and acceptance, concepts defined by actions taken to recognize and understand individuality, not simple toleration of obvious differences. Although I do not write articles or participate in protests demanding change, I quietly respect the dignity of individuals and value their perspectives. My service in the United States Army has profoundly shaped my attitudes and guided my actions supporting these beliefs.…
I am prideful that i am unique in my color (skin tone),physical attributes (the prevalence of butt implants/lifts), the accomplishments of my cultural (invention of peanut butter, curling iron, street lights, constructing the white house, president), building America (working the fields, contributing to the economic growth of America), traditions (wedding ceremonies of the jumping the broom), food (soul food, creole, music (Jazz, Hip Hop, Rhythm and Blues), and literature (Langston Hughes, Ricard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou); i am also prideful of the fact that the human race originated in Africa. The thing that I am shameful about as an african american in the year 2015 is that racism is still strong due to ignorance and the loss of the astonishing amount of african american males that are being taken due to violence, discrimination, substance abuse, poverty, and mental illnesses. I believe that the prideful and shameful aspects of the African american has impacted me as a person. I have realized that I have a strong sense of my self worth and ability. I am more hyper vigilant when it comes to situations of racial discrimination and prejudice. As I get older, and as a 30 year old, African american female with no children, I feel that my cultural identity has shifted. When I was in my teen years, I aspired to follow the norm and strived to be accepted by my…