Racial Identity Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">As a result, I never was exposed to that side of my family and lack the knowledge of my father’s and his family’s racial/ethnic identity. I was raised solely by my mom and almost all of my ethnicity stems from her ethnic background and upbringing. My brother and I grew up “Spanish”. My brother is lighter skin than me and is often taken as White while I am more often noticed to be of a mixed race. The most often misperceived though is our mom. She is dark skinned and is often taken as a black woman, more so than a Spanish one. Ironically, that didn’t occur as often where we grew up versus when she lived here in Upstate New York.

We grew up in New York City, more specifically, the Bronx. We didn’t grow up in the projects but we definitely didn’t live in the middle class section either. Our neighborhood was very diverse with many different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. Someone could walk down any one street and see more cultural diversity than in some existing cities and towns in the United States. I believe growing up in an urban environment exposed me to the understanding and the realities that many cultures exist and live serendipitously. As a last point, I found myself nodding in agreement with Corey in his experience in that pizza shop.

Society has a way of generating paradoxes so simplistic they become overbearingly complex. He’s absolutely correct in stating it’s not a matter of shame, it’s the actualization that you are perceived differently and reinforces the ideas behind race as socially constructed, built on the

very foundation of what America was created from. Racism and prejudice are just what they are, no matter how it’s justified; wrong is wrong. Ignorance coupled with avoidance compounds the situation when what should be important are education, accountability, and acceptance.