Race And Ethnic Identity

“Laws are written, policies are enacted, and judges render opinions as if the meaning of race is both well understood and the subject of great agreement” (Snipp, 32). Race and ethnicity are complex and elusive concepts which have had much disputed definitions over time. People have long been attempting to prove that race is biological, although we now know that it is indeed a socially constructed phenomenon that is not rooted in genes (Omi & Winant, 19). Individuals may vary in terms of physical features, or phenotypes, such as skin color, but when it comes down to genetics, there is no substantial difference between people of supposedly different ‘races’ (Harris, 7-8). When analyzing my own racial and ethnic identities, I must take into account

the way that others perceive me in relation to these concepts. Since they are socially constructed, I cannot remove my identities completely from the influence of society or from the history that has shaped the many conceptions of race. The turbulent racial history of the U.S. has a strong influence on how race and ethnicity impact my life. In the following, I will describe my racial and ethnic identities, explain how they have been constructed, and focus on the ways in which they currently and historically have impacted my life.
When I am asked to describe my racial and ethnic identities, I usually tailor my responses to fit the situation at hand. There are usually two main situations where someone asks me for these identities a) an application of some sort or another b) an individual is asking out of curiosity. On applications, I tend to be limited in the amount of options I can choose from. I do not have a typical response, but I have marked applications with responses such as ‘white’, ‘hispanic’, ‘cuban’, ‘other’, ‘multiple races’, and ‘unknown’. The answers I give to individuals differs too depending on how well I know the person and how much time I have to explain identities that I take to be fairly complex. To those I do not know well, I am white and hispanic, and to others I claim Ukrainian, Norwegian, English, Irish, Cuban, French, Spanish and sometimes Russian/Belarusian identities. The construction of these identities are more important than the fact that I claim these identities because I do not have any strong connection to them. I am more American than any of the identities listed above, but individuals and applications tend not to be interested in my claiming this identity.
The exact racial and ethnic identities that I claim have evolved over time much like the actual definitions of these terms have changed. My race and ethnicity have evolved over time to include many terms and even different countries. They have expanded due to new information received from my family, outsiders, as well as the U.S. government. When I approach the question about the construction of my racial and ethnic identity, I must take into account both societal or familial pressure. Much of how I am expected to identify now has been learned through from the seemingly small list of identities available to me on applications or others telling me how I should construct my own identification. In Neil Foley’s “Becoming Hispanic: Mexican Americans and Whiteness”, he notes that the creation of “two new ethnic categories of Whites: ‘Hispanic’ and ‘non-Hispanic’” by the U.S. Bureau of the Census occurred in 1980 and that before this time one’s hispanic identity would have been made invisible to the government (55). C. Matthew Snipp and Abby Ferber also note how dramatically the U.S. national census has changed over time in terms of which racial and ethnic categories and options are available for people to tick off (28; 7). Before the expansion of options, I might have a completely conception of not only my own racial and ethnic identity, but about these concepts in general.
In addition to applications like the census having impact on my identity, my family and individuals have had a major influence of the construction of race and ethnicity. Two of my grandparents are immigrants and the other two have a family line that has not been in the United States for too long. Since this is the case, my family has a strong sense of the culture of their original family lineage. I have come to identify with the list of countries of origin simply because my family has passed on this list to me and have emphasized their importance. In terms of societal influence on the construction of my identities, people have often tried to flatten my ethnicities by labelling me as just ‘white’ and ‘hispanic’. The frequency of this flattening has led me to identify as these two on occasion. Although the ethnic and racial identities I choose as well as their construction are important, the actual impact of these are key. There have been times when I have both benefited and been disadvantaged by my race and ethnicity as I will detail next.
When I was a child, I often heard stories from my grandmother about what it was like for her to grow up as an immigrant in America. Although my grandmother would now be considered white by the majority of people in the U.S., when she was growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s she was seen as an outsider, an ‘other’, who was not welcome into the white racial group. In a way similar to what Herbert Gans’ mentions in his article, my eastern european grandmother was “not white in the Anglo-Saxon sense” (107). She was told that she was inherently dirty, unamerican, and unwelcomed in America because of her birthplace and family origin. When my grandmother married my English/Irish grandfather, it was seen as a mixed marriage rather than one white person marrying a person of the same race. Since my grandma did not have an option to pass as white, she was highly aware of ethnicity and that awareness was passed on to me. Although my grandmother was impacted by her ethnicity, I have what is referred to as ‘symbolic’ or ‘optional’ ethnicity (Gallagher 96). In “Optional Ethnicities”, Mary C. Waters writes that “for later-generation White ethnics, ethnicity is not something that influenced their lives unless they want it to” and that “individuals do not have to admit to being ethnic unless they choose to” (33). I may have a family lineage that connects to different countries, but I am not impacted by them because I appear white and I do not have a strong tie to these ethnicities.
Since I appear white to others, I benefit from a racialized social system in the U.S. that has placed whites on the top of the racial hierarchy. According to Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s explanation of racialized social systems, the placement of people in these racial categories always involve some sort of hierarchy which tends to result in those placed in a superior racial position being given a multitude of advantages (32-33). Some instances of this racial privilege include access to better job prospects, higher social estimation (e.g., individuals are perceived as “smarter” or “more beautiful”), and a tendency to receive greater economic remuneration (32-33). I have seen this privilege in action when I have been interviewed for jobs. When applying for a job, I turn in an application which is reviewed when I am not present. I find that I am typically judged by my hispanic name rather than my white appearance. On more than one occasion I have had interviewers who seem overly excited by the fact that I do not look hispanic. They seem pleasantly surprised that I am white in appearance and comment on how they were expecting someone different based off of my name. I cannot be sure that I have been hired due to this racial advantage or white privilege, but my experience seem to indicate that it has had some influence.
On the other hand, there have likely been instances where my race and ethnicity have negatively impacted my life. As Bonilla-Silva wrote, those placed in the superior position tend to receive benefits which means that those in the lower positions are necessarily disadvantaged (32). Although I am white, I am also hispanic. Although the hispanics have been included into the umbrella of whiteness, they are still perceived as being lower on the racial hierarchy. Many stereotypes exist in the U.S. about hispanics and they are harmful because they generalize about a whole group of people (Bonilla-Silva, 37). Some examples of stereotypes that are common in the U.S. are that hispanics are illegal, lazy, hypersexual (e.g. will have many children starting at a young age), unintelligent (e.g. only able to do manual work), likely to be viewed as more violent than whites (Bobo, 148). My name suggests that I am hispanic and there may have been times when I have been overlooked due to negative stereotypes that people have about hispanics. There may be a glass ceiling that has prevented my advancement in certain areas because of racist ideas held by people about non-white individuals (Gans, 108). The illusion that the U.S. is past racial inequality is due to the sort of invisible racisms that are more common compared to the outright racism preached by groups and written in the law that was prominent in the past (Bobo, 156). These concealed racisms are sometimes hard to prove as stemming from racism, but when similar experiences are felt by individuals in a race group this points to a strong likelihood that these instances are based on a perceived racial difference.
When thinking about the importance of race and ethnicity in my life, the examples that I have offered show that they are important precisely because they have impacted my life in real ways.

Expressing and making known my construction of a racial and ethnic identity is important because I want people to know where I come from and where my family has come from. I do not want to be condensed down into one identity that is based off of my appearance or my name. I am more than these two signifiers. There is much more to my identity than can be collected from these two alone. When people use either of these, they are more likely to conjure up stereotypes to guess at how I am going to act, how I am going to speak, what my capabilities are, or what I am going to look like. I do not want to be labelled as something that is going to flatten my experience into a simple story that is not mine. I understand that there are intersections in mine and other people’s lives that are impactful. Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the matrix of domination is helpful when trying to understand how our identities are constructed and how they impact our lives. She uses the concept to describe how different identities combine to form a more complete understanding of the ways in which identity impact a person’s life. People are not just raced. Gender, sexuality, and class also play a part in how individuals are treated. Race is an important piece in the puzzle of identity, but it is still just one aspect. In order to accurately understand a person, the multiple identities and positions that a position holds must be taken into

account.
In conclusion, race and ethnicity are complex concepts that have substantial impact on people’s lives despite the fact that these are socially constructed and not rooted in biology. I detailed how the construction of my own identities have been influenced by family, acquaintances, and even government documents. Also, I provided examples that have occurred in my own life that demonstrate the ways in which race and ethnicity have been impactful. There are both advantages and disadvantages that I have experienced as a consequence of racial conceptions and stereotypes. In addition to an analysis of racial and ethnic identities, I included the concept of the matrix of domination to emphasize that these identities are better understood when joined with other aspects of an individual's identity such as gender, sexuality, and class. People are complex and the multiple aspects that form a person’s identity should not be erased or flattened.