Response to “On Becoming a Chicano”
My racial identity is Mixed-American. It is not an actual name, but I’m not full African-American nor am I half-white and black. I’m mixed with Black, Indian, Irish, and Italian. When I tell people, what my racial identity is they laugh and tell me I’m a mixed-breed, like I’m a dog. The struggles I face are being made fun of because I’m not just one race. When I was a kid, I use to get teased about not being just one. At the time, I didn’t even know what I was. However, as I got older my grandmother on my mom’s side became to explain to me what race is and what I was. She helped me see that people shouldn’t judge off what other people look like.
My experiences are similar to Rodriguez, by when he said he forgot what he was when his teachers was forcing him to change the way he spoke by telling him he had to speak English. When I was in school, I was forced to mark on state test that I was African-American. I couldn’t put everything down that I was mixed with. My mother told me that the test didn’t care about what people’s racial identity was. Therefore, I had to live with just marking that I was African-American. That was the only experience similar to Rodriguez.
Hi Jerann,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting concern that is arising in our country. The comparison you make between the author and yourself is true. As an indicator, we have to indicate which race we are, but what happens when we do not fit into one perfect box as in your case. For instance, I am not only white; I am Irish, Scottish, Indian and French, but to the boxes, I am only white.