Stereotypes That Determine A Person's Personal Identity

History is an important discipline to recognize and appreciate, especially with interpreting the present and future of society. It also creates and maintains stereotypes to determine a person’s role in society based on one’s class, social, gender, cultural and personal identity. The amount of privileges given to a person is based on their social class and ethnicity. As a biracial female who is also racially ambiguous, it is difficult to know my exact place in society. I knew the privileges that I had, but I had to look past my own to fully understand the dynamic of power relationships that determine cultural interaction. Gender in society plays an important role in deciding who is superior to the other. Before the Chicana feminism movement started, “’Women students were expected by their male peers to involve themselves actively but in subordination,’” (Gutiérrez, 1993). It is hard for women to get out of these molds, especially depending on the discipline and …show more content…
Since I am racially ambiguous, many people categorize me based on my features. Racially ambiguous means that it is difficult for another person to know their ethnicity and background. When I try to engage in the Filipino community outside of my family, I am not always welcomed because my features do not mirror or are close to them. History has used this as a way to disconnect certain cultures from others where, “The system […] condoned more extreme forms of terror towards Mexicans, since it considered them foreigners and not entitled to equal protection under the law” (Acuña, 1988). I am not towards the top of the power relationship, but I am aware of those who are. Those who are at the top have specific features that determine their ethnicity. Since the idea of exclusion on different levels are still prominent, history continues to blind those to the possibilities of achieving social