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Writing a narrative about myself
Autobiographical narrative 4 pages long
Reflection on writing personal narrative
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In the famous essay “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian”, Edith Maude Eaton asserts her opinion that “individuality is more important than nationality.” I have to agree with this. People are not labels. For example, I’m not just a writer, or bisexual, or blonde, or smart, or an American. I’m me. The only me. Sure, each of those labels can be applied to me, but they do not define me. My nationality, as a label, is only important on official paperwork that I want nothing to do with. Most labels that are applied to me don’t bother me, but at this moment in time, I don’t want to be an American. Our presidency is very possibly going to be the next Hitler, our school system is a redacted string of swears I cannot repeat on an official
These categories often include our race, class, gender, income and our educational level. More often than not we are generalized by what category we fall under. However, these categories are the ones that society sees us as, but it’s not what defines us as a person. “A friend argues that Americans battle between the ‘historical self’ and the ‘self self.’” (Rankine 104). We can say that our “historical self” is what people view us as. Not only is it the category we fall under it’s the stereotypes that have managed to travel time and stick with us regardless of us not having lived during the time they were initially created. Our “historical self” is how we are perceived by people who don’t know us. On the other hand our “self-self” is the person we initially are. It’s the person who our family and close friends know us as. It’s our personality, our attitude and who we really are as a person. Nevertheless our “self-self” doesn’t have the power to protect us from what we are genuinely seen as. “however, sometimes your historical selves, her white self and your black self, or your white self and her black self, arrive with the full force of your American positioning.” (Rankine 104). We can tell ourselves that society isn’t what defines us but there’s going to be times where you realize that people see you as nothing more than the label society puts on
“The situation is very different for members of racial minorities, whose lives are strongly influenced by their race or national origin regardless of how much they may choose not to identify themselves in terms of their ancestries.” Quoted by Mary Waters. For non-whites, you cannot turn on and off your ethnic background in order for you to be able to enjoy a certain holiday for one day. It is not as easy as taking off a costume, and being able to ignore that ethnic background until that time of year comes around again where you put on a green shirt to celebrate your “Irish background” for Saint Patrick’s day, you are that ethnicity, and you cannot hide it. When I go out the next day in my everyday clothing, I will not receive harassment for what I wear, and I will not be targeted because I fit a profile of a certain ethnicity, I am white therefore I am “American”? I can possess a symbolic ethnicity, but for many non-whites, it is not an
Within the recent years there has been many changes occurring in our nation that had never happened before. Well defined social understandings such as gender, race, sexually as well as other self-identifying terms that had been previously well understood were starting to change and evolve, no longer fitting the social mold that it once had. A great illustration for my previous statement of change can be seen in the article “The Year We Obsessed Over Identity” by Wesley Morris, which highlights specific major events that had occurred in recent years till two thousand and fifteen. One case discussed in the article was the idea that race was defined by your skin color and other biological characteristics that landed
The Civil Rights Movement refers to the political, social, and economical struggle of African Americans to gain full citizenship and racial equality. Although African Americans began to fight for equal rights as early as during the days of slavery, the quest for equality continues today. Historians generally agree that Civil Rights Movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended with the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Labels carry strong attributes, one of the harshest the is negative effects of labeling. You can negatively label yourself or others. "Just one those things. You know, everybody makes mistakes. And a dead nigger ain 't really such big mistake when you think about it. Matter of fact you mize well forget the whole thing. Nigger wasn 't going nowhere, nohow. I mean he wasn 't no brain surgeon or astronaut, no movie star or big-time athlete" (Bartholomae, Petrosky, "Our Time", p. 662). In the event that society or you consider yourself or other as a nigger, that individual is present as just another black indolent person in the public eyes; he or she conveys the attributes of that negative label and that title sticks.
In the past, race could be so narrow a definition as to indicate what country a person was from. It could also be an indication of class in many ways, as anyone not of certain European descent was often considered of lower social standing, particularly during the times before slavery was outlawed. In modern times, this definition has fallen by the wayside and instead we use nationality to indicate a country of origin while race is considered a broader term. Race is defined by Dictionary.com as “an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, especially formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups” (dictionary.com, race). This c...
Ethnicity is made up of many factors and can be seen through various viewpoints. To cut someone’s identity into specifics can be a difficult task depending on what is being looked at and by whom. Nagel sees this when she writes, “As audience change, the socially-defined array of ethnics choices open to the individual changes. This produces a ‘layering’ (Mcbeth 1989) of ethnic identities which combines with the ascriptive character of ethnicity to reveal the negotiated, problematic nature of ethnic identity. (240)” In this she says that one’s ethnicity can be changed or formatted to fit into a bigger field, varying by who is looking into it. Mohr also sees how different perspectives can play as a factor, when talking about immigrants in the United States. Mohr uses the character if Aldo Fabrizi to demonstrate this, Fabrizi calls out William and says, “What do you think of your paisano. He don’t wanna...
In this world we are constantly being categorized by our race and ethnicity, and for many people it’s hard to look beyond that. Even though in the past many stood up for equality and to stop racism and discrimination, it still occurs. In this nation of freedom and equality, there are still many people who believe that their race is superior to others. These beliefs are the ones that destroy our nation and affect the lives of many. The people affected are not limited by their age group, sex, social status, or by their education level. Their beliefs can cause them to attack other groups verbally or in silence and even reaching to the point of violence. All of this occurs because we can’t be seen as a “people”, but rather like “species” that need to be classified. An example of racism due to race and ethnicity as categories of identity is seen in the article written by Daphne Eviatar entitled “Report Finds Widespread Discrimination against Latino Immigrants in the South.” In this particular case white supremacy groups discriminate Hispanics that are both legal and illegal in the southern states of America, portraying several theoretical concepts.
Therefore it has become a source of division within the working class that only works in favor for the bourgeois and capitalist. On the there hand, Ethnicity has a wider concept than race but still can be useful and counterproductive. To begin, one obvious reason why ethnicity is useful because it allows for other cultures, customs to express themselves. Secondly, promotes multiculturalism and diversity. Be that as it may, it is counterproductive and overlapping because the systematic distinctions within ethnicity lead to equality and inequality in society Therefore resulting to racial supremacy and privilege. Given these points, in this paper, I will discuss in details the ways in which the concepts of race and ethnicity are useful and how they are counterproductive with regards to different authors; Peter Wade, Robert Milles, Etienne Balibar, David Nirebeng, Roman Grosfoguel and Joan
I am an American. Although I say that, there are prefixes I must place before that as to be properly identified. I am A Native American; a population which has a rough history with America. An LGBT American; another population which has a rough history with America. I am a minority American, like the majority of the citizens in our amazing and diverse country. These prefixes result in unfair descrimination. My only hope for the future is that minority drop their prefixes to become simply American.
Nationality can be important to many but to others it is not important. Many humans believe nationality is
is based off your physical appearance and the ancestry of a person. Society sees race as
Personally, I believe the U.S. government should continue to categorize its populace into racial categories but keeping in mind that everyone are still human beings with different cultural backgrounds. These categories provide characteristics that identify each person within the society and in what culture groups these individuals belong to; therefore, the categories play a role in the community. The idea of emphasizing that race is real has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include being able to analyze the differences that shape who and how unique an individual is and the cultural practices that certain ones follow while others don’t. In contrast, the disadvantages involve an idea that contradicts the deeply held values and
Labels are powerful. I’m a sister, daughter, niece, cousin, best friend, co-worker, confidant, masochist, volunteer, submissive, girlfriend, bisexual, sadist, polyamorous teacher... wow! What kind of assumptions would one make by reading that sentence? What would happen if I wore a button that listed all of my “labels”? Would I be treated differently?
Ethnocentrism, group identification, and labeling are all counterproductive to creating a positive culture of diversity in the United States. Group identification and labeling promote discrimination and prejudice. Ethnocentrism prevents us from growing as a nation. The United States is a diverse melting pot of cultures, and we need to practice pluralism if we are to prosper.