Being A Woman Of Color Essay

I’m scared, perplexed, and feel lost. This doesn’t feel good. During 2003 and 2008, I discovered what being a woman of color meant in America. It wasn’t something that I was taught in school or by my parents. It was something I learned on my own, by observing the people around me and their actions or words towards me. However, it was not until 2003 and 2008 because I was in a different state than where I grew up. I had lived in two different predominantly Caucasian neighborhoods up until those time periods. The first town I grew up in for eight years was my ‘home’, where I felt most comfortable, and where I was able to live in my ‘perfect fairytale’. Actually for most of my life I was able to live in my own ‘fairytale’ world, at least I wish

There are many instance in which I’m scared, perplexed, and feel lost, however, it is something that has become normal to me. Through these instances and many more I have been able to understand what being a woman of color means in America. As a woman of color I still have yet to fully understand and grasp my mind around this phenomena, however, “Debates over the causes of the continued advantage that non-Hispanic whites enjoy in the labor market center on several key processes: population changes, industrial restructuring, disarticulation, and discrimination”(pg. 9, Browne). Being of Hispanic and African-American background I have experienced different instances in which each of my races are discriminated against differently. In a lot of instances being African-American is seen as worse than being Hispanic. “In 1944, Myrdal derided the “treatment” of African Americans as “America’s greatest failure”(2021) that was engendering a fundamental social struggle. Fifty years later, this struggle continues”(pg. 9, Browne). I have surpassed all obstacles that I have encountered and beat all the statistics that others have put onto me. No matter my race or gender I truly believe that I can achieve anything I want, no matter how cliché that might sound. “You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”― Abraham