Different Beliefs About Race

People believe that race is an important part of life because they grow up knowing their racial identity and the need to embrace it. We take part in family traditions and spend time with those who have the same racial beliefs. There are many places where people of the same race live together in neighborhoods for example Little Havana for Cubans. They cluster together because they feel as if races should stick together in a country where they are the minority. Some children will be quick to pick up on people’s differences while others notice the differences later in life by experience. People need to be educated on what race is and there is not any biological are genetic difference within races that separates them from others. Race is a social construction that was invented years ago purely for the beneficial of Europeans who wanted to distance themselves from others to show superiority.

PilarOssorio stated that there could be more diversity and genetic difference within a certain racial group than people from outside that group. We learned that was true when a group of students from the film tested to see whom they were most similar to. Students were surprised to learn that they are just as different from people of other races as they are to people of the same race. That shows that although we may look like other people it does not mean that we are biologically or genetically the same. Mutations developing over time have caused people to look different than the rest. There could be a belief that people of a certain race are better at basketball when really that is not the case anyone can be just as good a player it depends on genes not race.

I identify as being a Latina both my parents are Mexican and I grew up talking in Spanish and visiting Mexico often as a child. Most of the time I do enjoy being Mexican but there are times where I wish I wasn’t because of the discrimination we face. I feel as if my brown skin holds me back and I have to work extra hard to disprove stereotypes. Whenever I see an article on Mexican immigrants I have to stop myself from reading the comments because I know they are always negative. It makes me even more aware of how people see us as inferior and thus make racist comments. In the film it even mentioned how Mexicans were seen as mongrels and were taken away a third of their land.

Knowing this information does not change the way I think of my racial identity. I always believed that we were all equal and now knowing that each individual is different from one another proves that we are equal and races do not define us. It shows that those of the same race are not much more similar to us than others. Race helps us know where our ancestors are from but does not necessarily tell us the kind of people we are biologically.

There is no evidence that shows that biologically races are different from one another. As we already know, race is a social construction but people have chosen to group each other by race. Race is always on our mind even if we do not always think it is. When we want to describe someone we usually say that person’s race instead of using other physical features to describe them. Since minorities were discriminated against, we may expect it to continue that way. Whites benefit from dividing people by their race because they will always be favored and get opportunities such as jobs and education that others cannot. Today, Whites are given preferential treatment and they know that if we were to go back to ignoring race, everyone will have to be treated equally and they will lose an advantage. Race was used to justify genocide and now it is being to justify white supremacy. Our history is based on race therefore to try to avoid race today is difficult. When Obama became president many people were excited to have the first black president. Had the media not acknowledged his race, people could have been angry for not mentioning it. Others agree with it while others do that it why race still persists today even after knowing that everyone is just as different.

From Google