As the title would imply, this post is going to be about the discussion we had this week about the difference between race and ethnicity. I found this to be very interesting for a number of reasons and I'm sure at some point in our lives we've all confused race with ethnicity or vice vesra. Although we covered it in class I do think it would be appropriate to cover the difference between race and ethnicity. According to the Bonilla-Silva text that we read the main difference between race and ethnicity is that race is "assigned externally" while ethnicity is "a matter of self-assertion". That meaning that you are given your race by someone other than yourself while you're able to choose your ethnicity. I found it very interesting that something that can influence your life as much as race is something you have no control over. We saw first hand in "Ethnic Notions" how much race can impact someone's life. Granted those examples were from a different time, but it'd be stupid to deny that race still doesn't have an impact in someone's life. So if race is something that can impact our life, why is it that we have no choice in the matter? Or do we? I think these are some good questions to think about going forward.
The other thing on the topic that I found rather intriguing was when we discussed how we found out about our race and ethnicity. It seemed most people found out their ethnicity from their parents, such as myself. However I noticed that not many people were able to talk about when or how they found out what their reace is. That got me thinking, at what point in my life did I know what race I am? To be honest, after thinking about it for a while, I still have no clue. I do believe, however, that it wasn't just one event that lead to me discovering my race, but rather a bunch of instances that ultimately lead to me figuring out that I fall under the white/Caucasian race. I think this may hold true for a lot of people, and I would be interested to see how many people do know what event/events lead them to discover what race they were.
I do not think that we have a choice over our race and it will always be a part of who we are, which is disturbing. No matter a person's race people will judge them based on what they look and sometimes do not want to associate with certain people all because the color of their skin. That person could be the smartest and nicest person in the world, but they are not given the chance because the way they look.
ReplyDeleteI need I was under the white/Caucasian race when I was filling out those I sat test. I remember my whole class asked our teacher what they meant by that and she went around and told us what each category it meant. It weird that we learn at such a young age what race is, but not much about ethnicity. We are always looking at what race a person is instead of their family background and who they are as people.