To put it simply, I am a white, teenage, American girl from just outside Chicago, living in Wisconsin, and attending UW-Madison. There is no getting around the color of my skin being a major aspect of the opportunities life has given not just me, but the entirety of my family—who have all been white. I consider my background European, although I have never looked deep within my ancestry past the point of knowing I am at least one-quarter Danish and partly Irish. My being white, Caucasian, whatever one wants to call it, has placed me within the circle of the “majority” of American society. Prior to classes that require me to contemplate questions of race and ethnicity, which began in an English class in high school, I have never needed to develop
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People of other ethnicities, essentially anyone who is not white in the United States, does not have this virtue. This is because many ignorant Americans see being American as being white or having parents who were born here as well. As seen in Langston Hughes’ “Let American Be America Again,” he states that “There’s never been equality for me, / Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’” This describes he experiences as a black man in a society who did not, and often still does not, value black men or women. This is most definitely in direct contrast to my experiences thus far as a white person in America. If I choose to wake up tomorrow and decide to believe that America is, like the Declaration of Independence states, one where “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” I can do so, because due to my ethnicity I can be ignorant of facts without suffering any consequences (US 1776). My ethnicity does not limit by “certain unalienable Rights,” but men like Langston Hughes was not able to ignore his ethnicity because it affected every aspect of his life. In Hughes’ time there were many actions taken to improve civil rights. He lived during the days of segregation and not being able to eat at places deemed for white people, like the Woolworth’s lunch counter, which sparked sit-ins. Had I been alive in those days, I would not have been banned from eating in particular places based on my ethnicity, race, or background in general. Today, I am privileged to be able to fill out governmental forms without questioning what I should or should not put down, which many people who are mixed race are not able to experience. When filling out forms to apply to universities or taking standardized tests that necessitate one to fill in a box denoting their “ethnicity”. That is not to
People of other ethnicities, essentially anyone who is not white in the United States, does not have this virtue. This is because many ignorant Americans see being American as being white or having parents who were born here as well. As seen in Langston Hughes’ “Let American Be America Again,” he states that “There’s never been equality for me, / Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’” This describes he experiences as a black man in a society who did not, and often still does not, value black men or women. This is most definitely in direct contrast to my experiences thus far as a white person in America. If I choose to wake up tomorrow and decide to believe that America is, like the Declaration of Independence states, one where “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” I can do so, because due to my ethnicity I can be ignorant of facts without suffering any consequences (US 1776). My ethnicity does not limit by “certain unalienable Rights,” but men like Langston Hughes was not able to ignore his ethnicity because it affected every aspect of his life. In Hughes’ time there were many actions taken to improve civil rights. He lived during the days of segregation and not being able to eat at places deemed for white people, like the Woolworth’s lunch counter, which sparked sit-ins. Had I been alive in those days, I would not have been banned from eating in particular places based on my ethnicity, race, or background in general. Today, I am privileged to be able to fill out governmental forms without questioning what I should or should not put down, which many people who are mixed race are not able to experience. When filling out forms to apply to universities or taking standardized tests that necessitate one to fill in a box denoting their “ethnicity”. That is not to