The complexities of Identity are a package that many find difficult to unpack. Though they influence every action we take, but they so often go un-reflected until we are forced to stop and analyze how they help to create our own biases and opinions. In the Assigned reading, Mwenda Ntarangwi examines identity and its effects on academia and the field of Anthropology in particular. In the following essay, I will turn the mirror of interrogation unto myself and dissect my own identity, racial, gender and socio-economic, to better understand how they influence my biases and beliefs.
To start my piece, I’ll examine Race. Race is a divisive subject, but Ntarangwi finds it is very rarely spoken about, in anthropology or otherwise. In my experience as a bi-racial black man, I deal the subject of race everyday. My skin color and the reactions, stereotypes, stigmas and …show more content…
The scene Ntarangwi describes in the book where his class mates “just commented that Frankenberg’s book was “interesting”” and “went on to critique her methodology” calling her writing style “heavy handed” (50) instead of tackling the racial issues implicit in the text they had just read is one I have also experienced in my classes. Any discussion where subjects with implicit racial relevance are broached is met nervous looks or with flat out silence. I can empathize with Ntarangwi’s frustrations in wanting to talk about race, as my point of view influenced by my lived experiences as an African American and having to deal with the subject of race everyday makes me feel these conversations are important and necessary. But I often find many students are uncomfortable with these conversations. When I do find myself in a conversation about race, I’ve found the personal nature of these complex views makes it feel dangerous to share them with someone of another
To start my piece, I’ll examine Race. Race is a divisive subject, but Ntarangwi finds it is very rarely spoken about, in anthropology or otherwise. In my experience as a bi-racial black man, I deal the subject of race everyday. My skin color and the reactions, stereotypes, stigmas and …show more content…
The scene Ntarangwi describes in the book where his class mates “just commented that Frankenberg’s book was “interesting”” and “went on to critique her methodology” calling her writing style “heavy handed” (50) instead of tackling the racial issues implicit in the text they had just read is one I have also experienced in my classes. Any discussion where subjects with implicit racial relevance are broached is met nervous looks or with flat out silence. I can empathize with Ntarangwi’s frustrations in wanting to talk about race, as my point of view influenced by my lived experiences as an African American and having to deal with the subject of race everyday makes me feel these conversations are important and necessary. But I often find many students are uncomfortable with these conversations. When I do find myself in a conversation about race, I’ve found the personal nature of these complex views makes it feel dangerous to share them with someone of another