My Race That Affected My Language

At this point in time reflecting on my past experiences I think the first thing I would do differently with my life is believe in myself and not doubt my decisions or my looks. Growing up I have always been made to feel ashamed of my dark skin, my bigger body and my hispanic heritage because it was different from what society had taught me and my family. If I knew no one would judge me I would embrace the darker pigmentation of my skin, accept my body for how it is and wear my heritage with pride. During the summer might go out swim Instead of staying inside and worrying about getting a little bit darker; I would stop wearing long sleeve shirts on the hottest day to avoid having people see the darkness of my skin. I would wear red lipstick

Through out history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnicity group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound a like. The author portrays that race and linguistic has a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her different to others. Also, her own identity is being put in to question base on a linguistic stereotype. Furthermore, base on ones racial orientation society already have a certain expectation of what they assume the person is capable of and an expectation of how one acts like. When we put stereotypes on individuals we discrediting the individuals identity, we are making those people part of a group base on a assumption and stereotypes can not be used to describe a who group because not everyone fits into a certain category.

My race is Black, my ethnicity is African American and my culture (349) could be described as complicated. In applying these factors to my personal experiences I will refer to Matthew and Emirbayer’s “What is Racial Domination?” to explain the racial biases and discriminations that I have experienced from Arkansas to Los Angeles and ultimately Irvine. From the day of my birth my life and the opportunities presented or denied have been defined by racial domination and the Institutional racism of White Americans.

I lived in Clinton, Mississippi until I was fourteen years old. That’s where I got the city accent part of me. There were a lot of different, cultured people there. There were Asians, Middle-Easterners, African-Americans, and very few people that were white like me. We all sort of mixed into this city-type accent. I didn’t think anything of it when I saw that someone’s skin color was different than mine or if they wore different clothes than me. We were all different so we were all the same if you know what I mean. However, when we visited family in the country there were a lot of white people with country accents. So I had a slight country

Language discrimination is an inevitable issue experienced in contemporary society as there are numerous variations and accents of the English language. This is evident in the texts, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan and "The case of Robyn Kina" by Diana Eades. These texts explore the many forms of this discrimination, these being both personal and communal, and contrast or vary in terms of severity.

Wow! You are really smart for a black girl! You dress very nice for African-American, or I didn’t expect you to be so quiet. I have endured all of these comments on countless occasions. Many of my attributes genuinely surprise people, and I often wonder if my ethnicity influenced their reactions. Would my intelligence, sense of style, or shyness perplex others if I was of a different race? My dark brown skin is inevitably the first impression that I express, which dominates the presumptions and biases that others have about me. Moreover, racial stereotypes affect people of all races, and this issue exists in many aspects of our lives, anywhere from a casual conversation to law enforcement to a trip through airport security. Many

As I reached my middle school years, all my friends identified me as being African American. I did not attempt to correct them because I myself, didn’t understand what I was or what I should be called. The main one being the “Black” label, I didn’t know what it meant but through all the confusion and questioning,

Every night as I close my eyes, flashbacks from the day’s news, painted in vivid reds and blues, flash in my mind in rapid succession. Racial tensions in Baltimore. Protests in Dallas. The constant cycle of death and loss due to racial issues, set on replay throughout the country, throughout the world. It boils down to the significance of race- which stagnates in my mind everyday, sticks to the walls of my brain, like two interlocked magnets struggling for control. The idea wrestles in my mind. Race- it’s relevance and irrelevance, its strength and weakness, its push and pull. The person I am today is a result of the Puerto Rican culture that permeated in my household growing up- the bits of Spanish I would use to converse with my grandmother,

When people see me for the first time, they assume that I am African-American because of my skin color. However, when they hear me speak, they assume I am Latina because I speak Spanish. When they finally meet me, I can tell they are very confused. Yet this very confusion is what I appreciate most about my identity. No one can say for sure who or what I am, and I like being an enigma.

I find the idea of race a bit tricky because a I am of Mexican decent. My ancestors, according to my grandfather were Spanish so in a way I believe that makes me European white. This does not really affect my ingrouper or outgrouper communication because race is not a factor in my judgment. I do have a cultural perspective in determining certain people therefore having a greater interest in ethnicity. Again, I believe it is not a matter of race, I believe people do look at me differently at a certain degree but in a cultural point of view, ethnicity. No, race is not a way to perceive how others because there are major differences in a single race. For example, Asians tend to have similar characteristic in our western perspective but in their

Heta patel Dr. Blasingame English 1101: paper 1 3 February 2015 Storming the gate talking in color Racism is one of the mot common reason people all around the world suffer from. Racism means discrimination between a person based on their skin color or race. Some people even think they have more ability than people of other races. In Tiffany Hendrickson’s essay, she talks about how she was discriminated by other white people in her community. She had certain problem while growing up due to her mother being deaf and her dad being illiterate.

When I am in class or talking with friends, something I think goes unnoticed is my ethnicity and realities in my life outside of school. I am from Eritrea, a country in East Africa, however people do not seem to notice. When classmates I have known for years realize that I am Eritrean, let alone African, they are surprised. They say I don’t sound African because I don’t have an accent (affiliated with certain parts of Africa), nor do I look African because my skin tone is not as dark and my hair is long. It is interesting to me how they categorized all Africans to these few characteristics when it is simply not the case. The ignorance that causes people to stereotype is the reason why I wear my ethnicity proudly on my sleeve so certain people

For instance, there are some who judge me because of my home town. Some think I should have a southern accent, and my vocabulary should consist of mostly slang and broken English. Because I am African

Categorizing we all do it. But why?In the article, Friedman:A person's accent doesn’t determine their intelligence, personality.By Christianna Friedman, Friedman says “We start categorizing people by their accents, putting them into groups and making false assumptions about them. No two people are alike and no two languages are alike.We’ve all probably been criticized and/or categorized by the way we speak.For example, I’ve said something in my native language of Spanish before and people always have asked me “are you Mexican?” “Oh, you speak Spanish.You’re Mexican right?”before when I was much younger, this didn’t bother me. But now I’ve realized I’m being categorized, just for the simple fact that I speak Spanish.Yes, I know this isn’t necessarily

My family has a big influence on the language I use when I am with them, and even when I am not. If I do say so myself my family is rather very funny and we all just have a really great since of humor. A lot of the time we are just joking around or poking fun at one another, in a loving way of course. The relationship I have with my siblings is very important to me that relationship has really helped shape my everyday language. Most of the words or phrase I use in the family setting are from television shows, movies, or just things someone in my house has said before that is now constantly reoccurring.