Race Ethnicity And Identity

“Who are you?” Seems as though this is a just a simple question, but constantly has the most complex answers. For myself, I have answered this question differently in ever ice breaker that I have ever been forced to participate in since middle school. A continuous swarm of questions swim throughout my head as I ask myself who I am. I am what the surface shows, but do I dare expose myself to my peers? I have been different than those around me ever since my first day of Kindergarten. I am just like ever other kid that grows up in the inner city, playing with neighborhood kids, but immediately returning into my home to avoid being mixed in with an unsavory crowd. To avoid this crowd, my mother enrolled myself and my sister into a more structurally …show more content…
According to G. H. Mead (1934), without other people to respond to our actions, we would not be aware that we “are” or that we exist (361) which leads to two central insights about identity: A person’s identity depends on their own view of themselves, but it also depends on others’ view of them (361). After reading this, I looked back at my life and in retrospect and concluded that every combination of words that I chose aligned completely with how others would view …show more content…
For example, if a person is biracial, but only self-identifies with one out of the two races that makes up their composition, could possibly change the course of their aspirations. If a biracial person identifies just as one race such as African-American, they would have a lesser chance to receive a job than white males. So with the chance of unemployment, most biracial Americans would self-identify with the race that has been the least suppressed over time. Multiracial individuals have reported that the constant social pressure of having to “choose” one of their racial group affiliations is a primary source of psychological conflict (CITE). This demonstrates the power of environment when trying to self identify