The Importance Of Self Identity

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. Culture builds up the way you view your world and your reality but then again, culture is shaped by your ethnicity and your race. Everyone has a different experience through these three things and essentially create their self-identity. While self-identity is malleable and relates to the experiences with culture, ethnicity, race, everyone has this life question of "who am I and what makes me, me?". As a Hispanic minority, I see the importance of race, ethnicity, and even religion can affect how I identify myself, and how others view me. When it comes to self-identity the first aspect is culture that comes to mind is family. In a racial context, the Hispanic community

It was just a way of living, not really something to be taught to me. We had our music, our food, our huge family gatherings and our Spanish. While this is part of the Puerto Rican culture I did not feel much pride in it nor did I acknowledge it as much. What I knew was learned through the process of living and not going out of my way to learn it. My dad would always try to get me to listen to Spanish, mostly old school salsa, but I always thought it was boring compared to the English rap that my friends listened to. At this stage of my life my ethnic background was not ignored but it did not seem too important to me. I lived in a lower income neighborhood and the section of town I lived in was mostly Hispanics. There was only three black kids and one white kid, so being Hispanic was normal to me and not something I needed to