I Am Irish And African American Essay

As stated in Webster's II Dictionary, a woman is defined to be an adult female human. In today's society being an African American woman is a rigid task to live up to. It means to reside to what their ancestors have left behind, which means to be stronger than ever. Rosa Parks was strong, Harriet Tubman was also strong, and Jezebel was even stronger. So what exactly does it mean to be a woman? It means to stand up for what is right, even if that means sacrifice, it means to be strong whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally. African American women are perceived to be the backbone of the family, meaning that even though the male may support the family financially, that the women have the emotional and mental part in the bag.

James McBride can tell you firsthand about man verse racial identity. Journalizing his experience in his New York Times Bestseller novel the Color of Water simply outlined his struggles of finding who he was. His upbringing included a black father and a Jewish white mother. His background made it hard for him to understand why his home was different than others on the street. Although McBride experience shows an older outtake of racial identity, some may say this still is a problem today. Offspring feels the need to pick a race in society to succeed in the generation and it may be the step to understands them more. Notice in the subtitle of the book "A black Men tribute to his white mother" he label himself as just black as if there was a barrier between his mother and himself because the so different. Today we need to not let racial identity become a big part of our lives.

In his essay, “As Black as We Wish to be,” author Thomas Chatterton Williams tries to paint a picture of a world where the sight of interracial families was still considered an oddity and shows how, over the decades, society has slowly became more acceptable towards the idea. He begins the essay briefly discussing the ignorance of people during the late 1980’s while also elaborating what hardships African Americans have dealt with over the past century. He explains that even with the progression of interracial families and equality of African Americans, a new problem has now risen for interracial children of the future. While either being multiracial, African American, or White, what do they decide to identify themselves as? This is the major question that arises throughout Williams’s argument. While Williams’s supports his argument with unreliable environmental evidence, as well with other statistical evidence. His argument is weakened by an abundance of facts, disorganization, and an excessive use of diluted information.

In the essay “‘blaxican’ and other reminded Americans” Richard Rodrigues states that “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city”. This evidence reveals that in America there are many kinds of cultures you don't need to be considered either black or white.

As a young child, I lived life colorblind, unable to grasp the concept of race or skin color. Growing up in Florida as the only Asian in my elementary school and never being bullied for being different, I assumed everyone was white, including me. But then came that earth-shattering epiphany: I realized I wasn’t white. I started to notice that not every supermarket sold Pocky or bubble tea and that it’s not common to get money in shiny, red envelopes on New Year’s. I realized that not everyone knew how to use chopsticks, that not everyone ate rice with every meal, and that when some people spoke slowly to me, it’s not because they were trying to articulate, but because they thought I didn’t understand English.

1 . What issues most concerned black political leaders during Reconstruction? Reconstruction brought important social changes to former slaves. Families that had been separated before and during the Civil War were reunited, and slave marriages were formalized through legally recognized ceremonies. Families also took advantage of the schools established by the Freedmen's Bureau and the expansion of public education, albeit segregated, under the Reconstruction legislatures. New opportunities for higher education also became available with the founding soon after the Civil War of black colleges, such as Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Fisk University in Nashville,

As a middle-class Somali-American, I have an identity that very few individuals in the United States have. As a result, I have never fit into a particular group of people. I had not realized this until college because I had always gone to small schools throughout my academic career. From elementary school to high school, I never belonged to a particular group; instead, I associated marginally with all of them due to the small class size. I had created a superficial sense of belonging with a large amount of acquaintances; however, college’s different environment exposed this superficiality immediately.

In a world where words and color have so much meaning and power, I’ve grown confused by the word “race” and the bizarre pigments it assigns. We’re called the human race, yet while we run together in the single race of life, we have split into teams: white, yellow, brown, black. My bewilderment fails to end there. Though his cheeks are ruddy and spotted with moles, my father is called white, and my mother, though pale as porcelain, is a yellow woman. As for me, I belong nowhere, hopping between my mother and father’s people, unwanted by either.

I lived a double life. I never truly understood the implications of race growing up. I found myself often struggling to find my identity coming to the United States at the age of 9. The very nature of identifying with an ethnic group boggled my head, and labeled me as an outcast in this foreign land. Do I try to acculturate or assimilate myself into this new culture my parents brought me into? My parents always told me what defines a person is not the color of the skin, but the values their characteristic bring forth. I never really thought that I would face a conflict that will require me to remember their advice.

Growing up, race was never an issue for me. I have almost always known what racism was, but I always thought it was a thing of the past, and completely ended when Jim Crow laws were abolished. I thought race did not affect my everyday life, but recently I have learned that even today, being White in America has greatly affected my life. Being White in America has affected how I identity racially, where I grew up, who I grew up with, where I went to College, where I went to high school, and provided me with advantages that many minorities are not lucky enough to have. I have realized this by looking at my life and reflecting through C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination(Lambert Lecture).

“Why is your ice cream tub filled with green glob?” asked my then eight year old friend Maya. “What?! That’s crazy.” I said coyly replied, when in reality I couldn't wait until Maya left so I could gobble up that Egusi soup otherwise known as the “green glob”. As a child I always found it hard to embrace and be secure in my culture around my predominantly white friends. So much so that I would always act clueless when asked about my culture to the point that I thought I had an identity crisis. Growing up I always thought my race was abnormal but after living with my grandmother and visiting NIgeria, I grew to love and embrace my culture.

The subject of race, within the field of sociology, can often be viewed as both a fluid concept and a cultural experience. Contrary to popular belief, race is not biological, but is a socially constructed category of people that share the same biological traits. Race can often change over time and is formed primarily by our personal views and the views of others. These can range from ethnicity to self-presentation and feelings of place within society. One example of the fluidity of race can be seen based upon the classification of the White or Caucasian race. In today’s culture, this race has been drastically increased to include a vast array of “white” individuals.

Being able to find identity for myself seemed like a walk of solitude through my silence and confusion. Growing up biracial I observed others as they look me up and down to figure out what I am because to them, I am something different, something almost oriental, something to put a label on because they cannot perceive the in between. With polite smiles people would ask the “what are you?” question. By never being able to escape others apprehension, I strayed away, I drew the lines for myself.

The universal notion that outward appearance is a vital quality when defining both our own and other’s ethnicity is what greatly shapes the categories in which people are placed in. In this way, the silences and denials that surround white privilege is key in the maintenance of a social system that is embedded with layers of vast and unseen dimensions. The establishment of race is fixed upon individuals predominantly through the color of one’s skin as a means of distinguishing groups within a society that finds comfort in labels. In return, placing such limiting margins on individuals’ strip colored people of any chance to designate for oneself which ethnicity one would choose to identify with. Yet, “what does it mean to talk about ethnicity as an option for individuals?” (Waters, Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?). Majorly, it is only times when whites take on

Most textbooks will point out that I am a member of the most racially unaware group in America. As a white, heterosexual, male, it seems like everyone targets you as a racist, sexist, or homophobe. The truth is from a historical context I completely understand where people would gather enough information to make those generalizations, but in the back of my head I always think that I did not really have a choice in my race or gender. Johnson (2006) points out that individuals who are privileged rarely recognize that they have benefited from that privilege. Looking back on my life it seems difficult to describe it as privileged, but reflecting on my past has made me understand some things about my awareness of other races and cultures.