American Racial Identity

Jade: Do you or anyone you know find it hard to balance your culture and the American culture?

The first of two essay questions focuses on Leo Chavez’s book , “The Latino Threat”. The questions and statements that will be answered include “ What is the Latino threat?, ‘How does he define citizenship?” ,“Identify and discuss two examples of the Latino threat” and “ Identify one policy recommendation and discuss whether you think it is achievable”.

When filling out a questionnaire, it is only a matter of time before I come across the predictable: what is your race/ethnicity? I do not have to think long nor hard about my answer. In fact, I do not hesitate to pencil in African American. Why is that? It could very well be that at a glance my skin tone and accent is enough for people to quickly label me as such thus reaffirming my identity. Though, I know people with similar physical dispositions that struggle with the question every time it arises and others complain about the limited options that make them feel pigeonholed into too broad of an identity.

Mixed races, now, has become a matter of a great concern for various countries. The matter drawn attention of numerous researchers or professors, in which Richard Rodriguez has done an outstanding work with his “Blaxicans” and Other Reinvented Americans” essay .In his essay, through the story circles around the Hispanics, he magnifies the racial classification that formerly exists does not fit today reality. Therefore, it plays an important role to support the author’s overall theory and help the audience to have a clear vision to the problem.

It is important to call attention that this type pf policy categorization has other costs to consider such as stigmatization and victimization, in addition to creating benefits for group membership. According to how political and economic institutions treat and interact with people from other ethnic groups can help impose and affect the definition of ethnicity. An example of this that is states in the text is Latinos is the Mexican Americans’ experience since the 1960’s as well as the development of the pan-ethnic term Hispanic. The rem Hispanic became widely used in the 1970’s after critics suggested that the term was a product of Madison Avenue public relations firms, Capitol Hill press corps, major media, outlets, and government bureaucrats. By this happening the rise in marketing efforts reinforced the evolution toward identifying Mexican Americans and other Latinos as Hispanics; which created a blur between distinctions across the various Latino subgroups. Now, “Hispanic” has become the primary term for specific Latino national-origin groups like Mexican Americans or Chicanos as well as other Spanish origin

One of the main advantages of this book is that it can be regarded as the first serious attempt to study and understand the peculiarities of Mexicano and Latino politics as they are represented in the United States. The author considers the question of political as well as the national self-determination of Hispanic minorities living in the United States. Indeed, this issue is rather important for all people regardless of their area of residence. National and political identity are essential for all people, because they determine the vector of their further development. For this reason, the merit of the author is certain. No less important is the fact that Navarro is committed to a deep and comprehensive analysis of the Mexicano and Latino politics. In this regard, the value of this book is that each of its chapters can be seen as the result of serious scientific research and reflection. The author uses various scientific research methods based on the study of historical, demographic, social, economic and political characteristics of living in Aztlán. Historical study of the peculiarities of the region is inextricably linked with the social and economic characteristics of its existence. The author aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the issue. As a result, the reader is able to see the social, economic and political development of the region called

From 13 colonies to 13 states, America started taking its shape in Jamestown, Virginia 1607. Tedious factors such as, gender, class, ethic, religious and regional view help shape American identity after Revolutionary War.

Post-racial America is a myth. The colorblind/post-racial theory that race no longer matters in America’s society and that the rights and racial order (mainly whites-blacks) of America in post-Civil Rights era just falls short of the truth. Up until 1964, the Jim Crow laws were state and local laws implementing racial segregation in Southern America. Both whites and African-Americans lived under the “separate but equal” status for black citizens and racism was the norm. July 2nd, 1964 brought the end of Jim Crow laws and introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which became a landmark in America’s history by enforcing the civil rights of all citizens and outlawing discrimination based on one’s race, religion, sex, or color. Despite the introduction of post-racism law and equal rights, in today’s society it is no secret that America is anything but a post-racial nation.

The connection between each work comes down to individuals not being validated by white society is deemed as a source of freedom. Not only the idea of ignoring African American render them powerless, but this also becomes imbedded in their minds. The white culture was held as a symbol of beauty. And White American only saw the African American community for their color and treated them less than based on that fact. For this reason, Blacks always struggled to exist in a dominated white culture. Based on these stories, each character search to find their true identity, while finally accepting the issue of being ignored. For this reason, the man accepted that he was invisible and decided to use it for freedom and agility as he shouted, “no

Intro: Each excerpt both “Response to Executive Order 9066” by Dwight Okita, and “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros, the take on “American Identity” question from two very different points of view. Okita’s poem discusses “American Identity” and how an individual is more affected by the culture that they experiences rather than the effects of where your family comes from. On the other hand, Cisneros discusses “American Identity” and contrasts how her “Awful Grandmother” sees the American Culture, how she sees American Culture, and how those part of the culture take to judging her based on something as simple as the boots she wears. A common relationship between both of these excerpts is, Cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it means to be American. The actions you take and the choices you make determine you, and your impact on “American Culture”.

As with any time something changes, or tries to change, there will be the unproductive few who fight the change with all their might. In this context, these groups are known most broadly as “Alt-right” groups, or more simply as hate groups. These rising racial differences have been perceived by some more right-wing whites as a negative change. This thinking has had a dramatic impact on our country, being the main reason our current president, Donald Trump, was elected in 2016. He played on white people’s fear of the rising minorities to become elected. As stated by Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel, “Donald Trump successfully leveraged existing resentment towards African Americans in combination with emerging fears of increased racial diversity in America.” Already as of late 2016, New Mexico and California had the majority of their registered voters as minorities (Chokshi). This impacts the voting demographic within the states and shows the rest of the nation and example for what the future of our country looks

“It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals,” was one bunch of wise words once said by Felix Frankfurter. What Frankfurter means by this is that the biggest act that is unequal is giving equal treatment to those who are not your equal. In America, there will never be a time where true racial and social equality is achieved. America will never achieve true social and equal equality, because there has been uneven social classes and different views of different people for as long as we’ve been a country, most people still view some people as their unequal whether that be because of their race or their social class, and you cannot completely control what people say and how they think about

America unifies and divides its inhabitants across the globe by race, class, and gender. Race is synonymous to the headings atop the aisles within a supermarket in that it describes the biological features of a human being, namely skin color, eye, and hair color, as well as, genetic predisposition to specific diseases. However, unlike the labels above each aisle of a store, race influences the social hierarchy of our world, conferring power and privilege to select groups while simultaneously denying unalienable rights to others. Ethnicity, on the other hand, is synonymous to the varieties of culinary cuisine accessible at restaurants all over the world, American, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, African, Jamaican, Cuban, Mediterranean,

Philosophy is a universal human process or exercise that cannot be exclusively being attributed to a particular human race. There is no one human race devoid of thinking or reasoning. To think is one of the characteristics element of all human beings which differentiate it from other lower animals and things which cannot think like stone; trees; rivers; etc. to say that a particular human race is bereft of reasoning is fallacious and then tantamount to a racist assertion.

This is in order to move away from the biological definition as this can be interpreted as a racist perspective (Chavez & Guido-DiBrito, 1999). According to Helms, (1993, p. 3) identity can be interpreted as a social construction, which “refers to a sense of group or collective identity based on one’s perception that he or she shares a common heritage with a particular racial group”. The Coloured identity has proceeded through these definitions; the different ways in which Coloured identity has been defined will be discussed in the literature review