Racial Disparities And Discrimination In The United States
Race and ethnicity have their own different meaning. Despite that they are mistaken all the time by everyone they are important to an individual's story. We all share something in common, but everyone is unique in their own way. Everyone has a story, everyone has a say, and definitely everyone has the choice to choose what they identify as. Latinos are the fastest growing minorities but are also discriminated in every way. Technically “race can be thought of as a genetically distinct subpopulation of a given species”. I identify myself as a latino since its the only culture I knew growing up. With my parents both being born in Mexico and coming to the United States as a young age, I don’t really know the american lifestyle. In my hometown there's a small group of hispanics and I choose to identify myself with them because I have faced much of the same hardships as they have. Being Mexican is really all I know because that's how the household was growing up. My mother did try her best to mix in the American cultures as best as she should as she raised each kid making me know the most of the culture but decide and choose to identify as just Mexican.
Race is a topic that is most talked about in today's society. Because of race people get affected by racism in many ways. Even though the world has progressed in the last decades there still seems to be racism today. Whether it has to do with police brutality, race and on education levels, and racial stereotypes and their effects. Racial stereotypes are something people face everyday. Racial stereotype is harmful to people because it’s not only cruel, but its harmful because who get labeled negatively repeatedly develop feeling of inferiority. With my physical appearance when I was younger I would have others students or even adults be surprised when I started to speak spanish since I was a lighter color and had small eyes. Most of the time I was confused as being asian until I got a bit more brown. Till this day in college I have had some people ask me “what are you” followed by “asian” and surprise when I answer that I'm Mexican. Personally racism has always been apart of my life through school and the community or even in my family. Racist comments got so consistent around me that nowadays it doesn't really affect me anymore. What has angered some people during the time I have been at college has just slipped through my head and I wouldn’t think twice about it. But I believe I do cause the problem as well saying racist comments or making fun of someone because I had to mostly fight for myself and defend myself everytime I got discriminated against by my peers or any other person.
Personally I believe I have heard every type of mexican stereotype or joke directed towards me. Because of this I had to learn just enough about other cultures so I can defend myself and not show weakness. In a Mexican household its common for a man or boy to be raised to have a “machismo” thought process. Which is a sense of being manly and not rely on anyone other than myself. The concept is associated with a strong sense of masculine pride. Although I didn’t have much of a male role model I still did get raised to not show emotion. Which is odd since it’s not something that my mom showed me it’s something that I learned as I grew up. Having just my mom I never really learned how to be manly things like working with tools or shaving and much more but with being a little bit stubborn I eventually learned enough from trial and error.
My race is one the most important things to me since I always try to represent my culture and show it to other people. I have participated in many latino events like the multicultural dance when I was in 8th grade as well as Junior and senior year. I wasn’t directly in the spanish club but I would help out if they ever asked me for anything. Also growing up catholic we would go to church whenever possible on Sundays and going to help in any event that my parents signed me up for. The word ethnicity is a word to describe a person’s culture identity, such as language, nationality, religion, and customs. Some ethnic groups share similar traits and same linguistic traits. There are also people who share history, but not common language or religion. Having different ethnicity backgrounds can mean facing many different implications throughout your life.
Another implication is being a deferred action for childhood arrivals or also known as DACA. The struggle of renewing your DACA every two years, and wondering if you’re still going to have DACA or another form of DACA after Donald Trump took that away from students. Which having a lot of family members and friends going through the process at the moment gets a bit scary since it’s always possible it can get revoked. Since most of my cousins are apart of it I would always hear the name but be confused on what it would do or help with.
There is a huge controversy over race and police brutality. Not technically in the community I grew up in but when I would visit other family members in the bay area it was very common. The perception of police brutality has dramatically increased among the public especially to African Americans but as well as Latinos. Both Whites and African American have different point of views about the police depending on where they live. Whites who live on a more diverse community tend to have negative views on police, than whites living in non diverse communities. Whites living in a diverse community says that police are most likely to use deadly force against blacks than a community that is less diverse.
There are huge racial disparities in how U. S uses force. Everyone has a say in what they identify with and others should definitely not change your mind or even have a say. People should feel comfortable in what they think is right and makes them the great human being that they are. People have to start telling their story or others will make up and tell it for you which might not be what you want.
