. Never being sure of what you identify with racially and or ethnically and being pressured to submit to whatever someone else believes you are, especially as a teenager, has the potential to permanently skew how you identify yourself for the rest of your life.
Before I continue, I should differentiate between race and ethnicity, two words that seem to be synonymous but actually mean totally different things. One’s race depends on one’s genes and shows through a person’s physical characteristics: his or her skin tone, facial features, and such. One’s ethnicity, however, is a matter of one’s cultural background: his or her culture’s customs, types of food, language, and more. Under these definitions, I can be considered biracial and biethnic. …show more content…
Although it is true that biracials have some leverage over their identity, they do not have full control. Three of the most influential factors in biracial identity development consist of one’s physical appearance, one’s cultural knowledge of his or her ethnical backgrounds, and one’s peers (Renn). Not all of these are internal factors. “An identity, then, is not just a personal or private project; it is a group project. It includes how individuals identify themselves, but also how others in their social worlds identify them,” argue a group of college professors writing a journal on social issues (“My Choice, Your Categories”). In my situation, my classmates had a considerable amount of power over my racial identity through their words. Consequently, their snide comments led me to a period of time in which I questioned whether or not I was actually entitled to my racial identity. Moreover, I do admit my situation may be different than most; however, I am sure that I am not alone in my conflict. Many other biracial children have experienced similar situations in which their peers didn’t readily accept their biracialism. Specifically, in a discussion on biracialism taking place in an elementary school classroom observed by a group of teachers Elizabeth Dutro, Elham Kazemi, and Ruth Balf, biracial children's’ identities were invalidated by skeptical peers, much alike mine was (The Aftermath of “You’re Only Half”). These occurrences go to prove that, alongside personal factors, external factors have a significant impact on how biracials might
Before I continue, I should differentiate between race and ethnicity, two words that seem to be synonymous but actually mean totally different things. One’s race depends on one’s genes and shows through a person’s physical characteristics: his or her skin tone, facial features, and such. One’s ethnicity, however, is a matter of one’s cultural background: his or her culture’s customs, types of food, language, and more. Under these definitions, I can be considered biracial and biethnic. …show more content…
Although it is true that biracials have some leverage over their identity, they do not have full control. Three of the most influential factors in biracial identity development consist of one’s physical appearance, one’s cultural knowledge of his or her ethnical backgrounds, and one’s peers (Renn). Not all of these are internal factors. “An identity, then, is not just a personal or private project; it is a group project. It includes how individuals identify themselves, but also how others in their social worlds identify them,” argue a group of college professors writing a journal on social issues (“My Choice, Your Categories”). In my situation, my classmates had a considerable amount of power over my racial identity through their words. Consequently, their snide comments led me to a period of time in which I questioned whether or not I was actually entitled to my racial identity. Moreover, I do admit my situation may be different than most; however, I am sure that I am not alone in my conflict. Many other biracial children have experienced similar situations in which their peers didn’t readily accept their biracialism. Specifically, in a discussion on biracialism taking place in an elementary school classroom observed by a group of teachers Elizabeth Dutro, Elham Kazemi, and Ruth Balf, biracial children's’ identities were invalidated by skeptical peers, much alike mine was (The Aftermath of “You’re Only Half”). These occurrences go to prove that, alongside personal factors, external factors have a significant impact on how biracials might