My Identity And African American Identity

What people label us is not always what we are and it could be rather offensive at times when people label us because of one’s looks or background. For instance, if I we’re to be asked “what are you?” In my head I would think to myself “I’m a girl, a breathing thing living on Earth.” but of course the one asking might not be awaiting such answer. I would simply say I am Mexican-American, Hispanic-American, or Latina.

Although I often get confused for different ethnicities/races than the one bestowed upon me at birth, due to my relatively ambiguous features, I know that I am an authentic pure Mexican girl and that no one can change that aspect otherwise. With having two pure Mexican parents, it is not very difficult for me to find out that I too was of Mexican descent. Spanish was my first language when I was growing up, and up till this day I still only speak Spanish in my household when it comes to discussing any sort of topic with my parents; when it comes to my siblings though, I do tend to speak more English than Spanish to them since the younger ones tend to understand it more than Spanish. As I was growing up, the notion of being of Latino/a descent

Race is a term that is connected to biology rather than ethnicity. Race is a population with the same exact species. Ethnicity is more based on culture than race, because it’s focusing on religion, customs, and language and to be part of that you must be involved with the qualities. My friend is a Chinese and American race wise however, he does not practice any Chinese customs and doesn’t speak the language at all, so ethnicity wise you could say he’s

In the novel, Their Eyes were watching God, Zora Neal Hurston drew attention to a controversial topic in the identification of biracial people. Growing up, Janie lived with her grandma and grew up with the Washburns children. She supposes she is white like them until she sees a photograph and understands that she is black. “So when we looked at depicture and everybody got pointed out there and there wasn’t nobody left but a real dark girl with real long hair standing beside Eleanor. Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark girl as me …

I use these labels to describe myself because I feel like these words really describe my people and myself. I feel like the words describe my people because not all of them are brown some are white and tan and minority because we are less than other ethnicities. I use these labels to describe myself because I feel like these words really describe my people and myself. Mexican-American because I am born and raised in America and from Mexican descent. Latina

My father is African-American and my mother is white. I am mixed with two completely different races and it shows through my appearance. When someone sees me they always seemed shocked like it was rare to see a mixed person. Once they find out about me being mixed with more than one race, then there comes the bundle of questions that do not seem to ever end. I often get asked, “If you are half black why are you so pale?” or “Why is your hair like that?” or “ How did you get your hair like that?”

There is no surprise that race plays a huge part in today’s society. I can’t lie and say I never meet someone and tried to guess what race they are. Mostly I get it wrong because I assume from their skin shade to hair texture they are a particular race, but it’s not simple. There are currently about 9 million Americans in the world who chose two or more racial categories when asked about their race. For all I know, I probably have another race in my ancestry that I might not know of which would make me more than just an African American.

The trick of the game is not that I come from one overly specific, exotic background; it is that I am made up of multiple cultures and ethnicities. To categorize me under one race or ethnicity is to take away my diversity. I am racially white, ethnically Hispanic, and culturally Asian. Because my white father, Hispanic mother, and Asian stepmother have all molded me, I feel it imperative to reflect their cultures and

Race, Ethnicity, and Identity My family and I would classify ourselves as Vietnamese racially. Both of my parents were born and raised in Vietnam in Saigon before immigrating over to the United States and then I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan as an only child. My parents gave me a common American first name but kept my last name to keep my original roots. As a Vietnamese person, I still can barely read my language but can relatively speak it so some parts of my culture are lost; however, I am trying to relearn it to become more fluent.

The reason why is because for many years I could not understand the differences between race and ethnicity. I would always confuse to two, or mix them up. After careful research, I finally learned that my race is Black or African-American and my ethnicity is Nigerian. Another problem I had is wither I was considered Black or African-American. I been told many times that they are the same thing, but I still believe they are different.

This distinction of identity crisis is impacted by multiracial or multiethnic counterpoints in society. Multiracial people internalize the variety of messages alluding to their identity from parents, family, friends, media, society and other outside influences. Basing their identities primary on those reflections and perceptions of others and society, believing their perception of themselves should match the perception of others. The extent of societal reflections and perceptions on the multiracial population is immense, even if the multiracial individual identifies with one side of their heritage, in society discrimination could affect adaptation and acceptance of that individual into the group.

A black Briton does not come with a hyphen because, ‘They are two separate words relating of two very distinct and often conflicting identities’ (185). Race remains an important factor in deciding the identity of a person. Before civil rights era it is regarded that, ‘black children had a more negative orientation to their own race than white children’ (Cross “Shades of Black”). In recent time black identity is described as the concept of ‘racial group identification’. Broman etal defines it as, ‘the feeling of closeness to similar others in ideas, feeling and thought’ (148).

The background of my cultural identity I am an African American female but that isn’t all there is to know me for. I am an African American girl who is very interactive with my religion and also my culture. Cultural identity can be hard to explain because some people don’t know what’s really in their culture and they fail to see , and understand it. I know what my cultural identity is because of my ethiopian flag, the baked macaroni, and the movie the lion king.

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

Symbolic Ethnicities “What do these ethnic identities mean to people and why do they cling to them rather than just abandoning the tie and calling themselves American?” Waters. America is known as the melting pot, although we are known to be a mixed nation, we tend to categorize ourselves in specific race groups. Moreover, when we categorize ourselves we tend to create hierarchy, which is stating which race or ethnicity has more power over the other. With this being noted, it develops a social structure of society, which is what people think is acceptable.