Race and Social Identity in On the Road and The Reivers Essay

There are two different dimensions of our identities: ethnicity and race. Ethnicity refers to one’s belonging to a specific cultural, or racial group that makes up culture, race language, and/or place of origin. For example, one can be African-American but have different ethnicities, one African-American and the other African-Caribbean decent. Race is a social construct that can be changed over time. Historically, referring to its specific characteristics one possesses based on: ethnicity, religion, or language; today's its classified solely based upon the color of one’s skin. Nevertheless, ethnic and racial identities are important and instill a sense of belonging and identifying with that specific group through attitude, behaviors. Moreover,

The film has several ethnicities within a small area along a time line of one day. The film has many, informative methods in which it describe the various diversity issues of all the characters within the movie. For example, Sal’s pizzeria which is owned by an Italian American has pictures of famous Italian Americans on the wall and plays Italian music. One character named Buggin Out is always upset. Bugging out hates the fact that there are no black people pictures on the wall especially since the pizzeria is in a black neighborhood. His perspective represents the people in the African American community that always protest, but usually don’t work to improve the community. The

Society has a way of making assumptions based on one’s physical characteristics. Often at times we categorize individuals to a particular social group. In regard to society’ perception of an individual this however, contributes to the development of social construction of racism. Most people want to be identified as individuals rather than a member of specific social group. As a result, our social identity contains different categories or components that were influenced or imposed. For example, I identify as a, Jamaican, Puerto Rican and a person of color. I identify racially as a person of color and ethically as Jamaican and Puerto Rican. According to Miller and Garren it’s a natural human response for people to make assumptions solely

Throughout the essay, Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections, I found Kwame Anthony Appiah’s claims about social scripts to support my idea that we present ourselves differently depending on the circumstance. There are times when we try to play into the majority, as well as times where we try and fall into the minority; we choose which group we want to highlight depending on which will get us where we want to go.

Shortly after this, the main character of the movie, Mookie, comes strolling into the restaurant. Mookie works as the delivery man for Sal, however, more important than that, he also acts as a mediator between the two races. Sal relies on Mookie not only to get the pizzas delivered but also to keep his fellow black folks happy with Sal so they will come and patronize his restaurant. This reveals a very different side of Sal and introduces the racist element of the story. On the one hand,

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

Sal shows self-determination throughout the story by making her way to Lewiston to meet her mother on her birthday. Sal [Salamanca] explains her determination, “But I had to decided to go, and I would go and I had to be there by my mothers birthday”(Creech 6). Sal show self-determination by her wanting to be at Lewiston on her mother 's birthday. Her determination is what keeps her going as well as setting goals. As she set the goal and completed it at the end of the story by her own. Sal describes, “I had driven from Coeur d’Alene very carefully”(Creech 252). Sal was so self-determined when her grandmother go sick they stopped and time was passing. That her grandfather gave her the keys of his car for her to finish her journey, which was to be on time for her mother 's birthday. She drove from Coeur d’Alene to lewiston on her own just to be on time for her mother 's birthday. These examples show Sal 's self-determination and how she grows up through the journey and obstacles she encountered and overcome them at a young age,No other younger person would think of or would do as she achieve her goal.Sals compassion through the journey also shows her growing up

Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a

Sal should have realized that in order to keep his business alive he would have to not only tolerate but learn to respect his customers. Since it seemed in the movie that the area had an invasion of African Americans and Sal along with his sons were annoyed by that fact. It was almost as if it were a resistance towards them, to make them realize who’s territory they were on.

Being identified with a group can shape one’s thoughts on theirself, and what is expected of them within their society. Some things that in one’s mind seem so normal and expected may be far from

Minorities in America are seen as less than. Their differences are seen as unusual by the majority. The majority “manifest ethnic and racial identity in mostly unconscious ways through their behaviors, values, beliefs, and assumptions” (Chavez). The majority view identity as unseen. They set the “Norm”. Minorities fit outside the “Norm” and their actions are seen as

The scene takes place inside of Sal’s Famous Pizzeria which is in the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The pizzeria has been in that neighborhood for many years and most its customers are blacks. Inside the pizzeria we see chairs, tables, refrigerator that contains soda, a pizza oven and a cash register among other things typically found inside a restaurant. The temperature inside the pizzeria is hot and coupled with the extreme hot day makes the racial tensions more intense.

Social identity is a theory which explains how people develop a sense of belong and membership to a group. Individual’s social identity is part of their self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership of a social group together with the emotional significance attached to that membership (Forsyth, 13). People are influenced on the group they belong to. Belonging to the in-group makes a person feel good because they belong somewhere in this group and allows them to feel important. The out-group is where people feel to be, they do not belong to a group and have feeling of exclusion and are often times treated more harshly than someone who belongs to the ingroup. This bias of favoring the ingroup relative to the outgroup leads to false impressions being made and stereotypes forming. Stereotypes help us navigate the world around us by providing a quick representation of what we think a person is like. This does not mean our perceptions are always correct and occasionally, this quick mental shortcut can get us into trouble. For example, the film 12 Angry Men stereotyping was rampant among the jury. When a stereotype is used it can cause a disruption of procedures. Instead, of inspecting all the evidence with an objective eye a bias can allow for systematic

How you do in school, your social ability, and your awareness of others are all guided by how you identify. Identification in one’s gender, race, religion, social class, and ethnicity are all driving forces behind your future self. Identity is a crucial part of who you are, and in recent studies and experimentation researchers have been trying to identify new, untested factors that influence behavior in people. Although, in the past there hasn’t been a strong focus on the positive and negative effects of race and ethnicity, the conversation is now shifting to align itself with the current times. With America becoming increasingly more ethnically and racially diverse, we must take the time to see how certain factors, specifically race and ethnicity, impact a person’s development and behavior.

The following paper will discuss two of the major dimensions of my cultural identity, and analyze the way in which my identity holds privileges, or has exposed me to oppression. Being that I am white, I have lived a life of privilege simply because of the color of my skin. I have been afforded opportunities, and lived a life free from persecution due to my skin color. I have also lived a life that has been impacted by oppression because of my female identity. This unique position between privilege and oppression is where I live my life.