Mexican American Ethnicity

myself did not know before I came to college. The two words are overlapped and used out of context frequently in people’s daily lives. The United States is what people call an immigrant country, there are many different ethnic and racial groups that not even the census can keep up with. All this diversity is what makes our country so different yet amazing. We are willing to embrace the many different cultures that each person has to bring. My family and I have been confused for many different ethnic groups and it is always very interesting to hear people say why they thought we were of a different ethnic group other than Mexican American. Ethnic confusion is a big deal, especially in America because of all the different identities people claim.

Throughout the semester we have been introduce to many different readings that were able to give us a better insight on what race and ethnicity really is.

The topic of race has been in our society for many many decades. Being Mexican American in the 21st century has given me the opportunity to see the many things that have occurred in the past and how in some ways are the United States are progressing. Though I am a firm believer in that history repeats itself, and many of the articles that we have read show that yes we have been in the same cycle of minorities being treated like outsiders. It started with those that were Europeans, to Asians, to blacks, and

Mexicans.
When talking about race one is referring to physical characteristic, for example the color of one’s skin, hair color, eye color. When talking about ethnicity one is referring to the culture of people. These two definitions are always confused, because sometimes we are not well educated on the difference. Labeling people as a certain racial or ethnic group can sometime be a negative outcome. Because when we first see someone we may assume that they are of a certain racial group when in fact they are not. We regress to the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. This would be a great example because many people do exactly just that. For many, they are also stereotyped to a certain point that they are not able to get jobs or do certain activities because of the way they look. These definitions that people refer to are what are what gets in the way of really understanding race. In one reading Rockquemore wrote Appearances serve as signs of group membership, assisting in categorization by demarcating racial group membership while also serving as status markers within groups (2002). Someone can be multiracial and yet by society, they are seen a black person. Reverting back to only definition clouds our judgement about whether someone is of a different ethnicity or race. Because they look a certain way people automatically categorize them as being a certain race this is the membership that Rockquemore talks about. With multiracial people though it is easier for them to “pass” as a certain race. I feel that even Mexicans are able to pass also, because people of Mexican descent are so differently featured it is easier to identity with whichever race, and others will not. The fact that society categorizes, has a big influence on someone who is multiracial.
One common stereotype is that Asian people are smart, this may be the case for some, but for other they may have a different background story. Maybe school was not as important to one family, but in the other it was. If we judge solely based on looks we are not progressing in our ways of thinking. Racialization and ethnicization yields different products, but they are both similar in that they both organize society into distinctive groups (Cornell, 2007). It is definitely safe to say that when we identify as a certain race or ethnicity we are classifying ourselves into a