Personal Narrative: My Racial And Cultural Identity

The world is filled with people, and like snowflakes, each person is not the same as another. Each person identifies with different aspects of their lives to create their own personal identities. I personally identify with my Italian side of my family to help form who I am today. I have found myself connecting with this side more so than the other parts of my identity. It affects how I live my life by becoming the center to the culture surrounding me.

Being a future first generation college student and a second generation Taiwanese immigrant, I find my ethnic identity to have played a crucial role in my life. Having grown up in a household where nobody spoke English, I believe it would be an understatement to say that my ethnic identity has defined me, for it is much more complex than what people perceive it to be. Rather, it has shaped me to become an individual who values education above all else. In Taiwan, education represents the pinnacle of success, and I strive to reach that pinnacle through an undergraduate education at Michigan. The Michigan Taiwanese Student Association will not only cater to my educational values, but serve to further my knowledge for a culture that remains relatively

Raised in an Indian household in an American environment I am torn between deciding which represents me as a whole. My family dictates that I should cherish my heritage. However in all honesty I am not fond from where I come from, I still don’t know how to read my native language, I am still basic speaker in my mother language, and there are some values in my culture that I am totally disgusted

Growing up in Southern California, I was constantly surrounded by people with different ethnic backgrounds. As I grew older, I found myself to be most passionate about issues surrounding the intersections of race, gender, and class. When arriving in Berlin, I had previous knowledge that there were a large number of Turkish and Arab immigrants. Because of my minor in Arabic and interests in Middle Eastern politics and Islam, I found the Turkish and Arab population to be a large focus of my attention during my time here. Coming from Orange County where a large Arab population resides, many of my friends are of Middle Eastern descent.

On the day I took my first breath, it seems that I had already taken up more than one identity. I was born into a cultured and diverse family, as my mother is Italian and my father is Indian and African. My mom’s side of the family lives separately across Florida, participates in most American traditions, and values independence. On the other hand, my dad’s side of the family values cultural traditions and family time. Recipes of home cooked Indian food have been in our family for hundreds of years.

America is often referred to as a melting pot. America is great, it is free, it is diverse. But then again, America is racist, it is prejudice and is full of racial tension. This is what people view America to be versus the reality of what it is when you are a minority. Growing up in America it is difficult to run from your ethnicity and your race.

I can’t believe how my Cultural Diversity class has enlightened me. I now have a more detailed explanation of how immigrants arrived, where they arrived and why. I never gave a second thought to all of it before much less where our society is heading. It seems like there is a contest to see who can conform to a more unified culture first or moreover who can destroy it first.

First, many locations have dockworkers who are of different ethnicities. I always liked going to the place where the dockworkers had some Latinos, because I have often heard them refer to me as " Pinche Negro : or " Pinchie Miyati ". Hope I spelled those right, LOL. The first one means the F-bomb with Negro on the end. The second literally means F-bomb and N-word together.

Being raised as an Vietnamese, Asian American in the Silicon Valley is a permanent part of my identity. My ethnicity continuously impacts the way I view everyday functions varying from feeling uncomfortable when my friend walks into my house without immediately greeting my mother to feeling a minute sense of comfort once someone speaks Vietnamese. Although being American is a somewhat unifying race, my ethnicity permanently helps me differentiate myself from others. Nevertheless, both, my ethnicity and race, aid my ability to fully embrace the erratic patterns that the world may throw at me. A visible trait of mine that most people can see is that I am cisgender and a female.

I was born in Mexico, but I came to the United States at the age of eight months. Besides being born there, I had never gone to Mexico in my life. So the one time I did go at the age of 16, one thing that really surprised me was how young kids were out on the streets asking for money, and selling stuff as well. Every time we got on a bus kids would jump in, and start trying to sell you candy, toys, whatever they could carry. I also saw kids that looked as young as 4 or 5 on the corner asking for money.

Being from a Latin and Hispanic background, it’s hard for me to pick what race I am. If you look at my mom, you would think she’s a white European, even though she is from Argentina. On the other hand, my dad has darker skin, he looks more Mexican, but these are not races. When people ask me what race I am, I usually say I’m White Hispanic. I grew up being told I was white, and have experienced white privilege, so I do not consider myself a person of color.