In our journey to find who we are, the first place to look is where you come from. The ethnicity you identify with, the culture you were raised in, the religion you were taught while growing up, and your sexuality can all be starting points for developing or evaluating who you are. Society has us divided by race; the most commonly acknowledged are Asian, African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic. These four classifications are based solely on physical features, the darkness or brightness of your skin color, the shape of your nose, and the color of your eyes. These are features that most ethnicities have in common, which makes it easy to identify what ethnicity an individual is. Sometimes there are exceptions to the rules where someone appears to be a certain ethnicity but has features of another. For example, my great-grandmother has chocolate brown skin with beautiful blue eyes. Chocolate or brown skin is associated with an African-American and blue eyes typically belong to Caucasians.
(This is an image of a face that consists of several ethnicities. It illustrates how four individuals of a different gender and ethnicity can have something in common despite the fact that they don't look alike.)Before we get to personally know someone, inferences can already be made just by looking at their physical appearance. This is how stereotypes are formed; once multiple individuals of one race associate themselves with the same task, others begin to associate the entire race with that task. For example, construction workers tend to be Hispanic. So when someone thinks of the job choices of a Hispanic, one of first things that comes to mind is that they are construction workers. These stereotypes tend to lead to misunderstandings and inflicts certain abilities to ethnicities. History plays a major role in where stereotypes were formed. Parents tend to pass down their beliefs onto their children, which can cause a negative stereotype to stay alive for many years.
When it comes to our physical features, we did not have control over which ones we were born with. Once you are older, some alterations can be made but for the most part your physical identity will not change. This makes me unable to understand why some individuals choose to mistreat others because of their physical features. I believe that God created us in the exact way he wanted. The different ethnicities and hair color allows our world to be diverse. No two people look exactly alike and that was for a specific reason. So, who is the judge for deciding the right way to look? There isn't one because there is no right and wrong way to look. Society has a tendency to negate someone or something that is different from the norm. Just because a person has blonde hair in a room full of red heads does not make the blonde haired person wrong, and it should not be the final component when determining the knowledge and abilities someone possess. When it is time to truly figure out who you are, the most important thing is to look on the inside because you have a choice of what goes on in the inside, your thoughts and feelings.
Nowadays, not only do individuals experience discrimination based on their race but now there is heavy tension on sexual preferences as well. In my opinion, sexual preference is not something you choose but just another feature you have no control over like race. "I never found a place where I fit in, where my identity wasn't qualified by my race-and later by my sexual orientation." (Ramirez, 838) This is a major fault in our society; the fact that we judge others according to a difference we see in them and not allow them to fell at home in our communities is something that needs to be changed. Some individuals that may share the same sexual orientation or race as you can also be judgmental if they feel you are not representing them enough. The essay by Anthony R. Luckett explains this idea. He was biracial and faced the from dilemma of fully being accepted by both sides. "To my Korean friends I always felt like the token black guy. To those two black men who passed me on 43rd Avenue one indelible night, I was a 'Chink.'" (Luckett, 865)
(This image is a representation for the GLBT community. They have been fighting very hard to gain acceptance into the greater community.)"Race matters. And it doesn't." (Luckett, 866) It is good to acknowledge your race because it provides you with a community inside our bigger community, the world. Each race has its strengths and weakness, but the strengths outweigh the negative aspects of each. It is good to acknowledge where you can from because it does play a role in who you are. In contrast, race does not define who you are. You can rise above the mistakes all races have inflicted on each other and learn from them. Race should not matter when you are looking for your soul mate or next friend. Sexual orientation does not define who you are and what you will accomplish in life. Once we are able to grasp the beauty of all races and sexual orientations, that is when we will be able to grow as individuals and understand the world we live in.
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