Ethnicity and Me Essays - Kinship And Descent,

Wesley Prude Ethnicity and Me 12/7/15 Katie L. Acosta Ethnicity and Me The issue of racial identity is a heavy burden in the African American community because of the combined disdain for people who are not solely African Americans as a way to discourage or show disapproval of inbreeding, even if it had been nonconsensual. The way in which many African Americans gained a degree of diversity in their gene pool is by the forcible rape of African American women in the past that produced mixed race children. These mixed race children would have special considerations among whites because they were often thought to be superior to their purely black counterparts and they experienced distrust from the people that they were supposed to call their own. In the African American community a lighter hue was a unstable characteristic. Often times being a male of a fairer hue in the African American community would bring criticisms of being soft, while a darker hued counterpart may endure stereotypes that characterize them as both mischievous and unintelligent. The nu ances of ethic identification among minorities are both complex and blunt in their application. In this paper I will discuss my status as a person who identifies with the ethnic moniker of being mixed race and what it means to me as a cultural African American and biologically diverse individual. I identify with the race African American. The reason being that I have suffered as an African American, been steeped in the civil rights tradition by veterans who have served in the civil force that drove African Americans and women towards more equal rights and set the stage for the rest of the nation to follow suit in later years. The lack of solace that my parents were able to take in the fact that they are both of mixed race has led me away from the recent trend of idolizing the lack of homogeneity in the African American community. In this sense I have found that it is sometimes counterproductive when seeking to forward the agenda of African Americans. The use of the mixed identification has often, in my opinion, been used to divide those of us who identify as African American and increase discord. In light of this realization I have made it my business to perpetuate my role as an African American male and have left the less prominent aspects of my biological or cultural identity to fall to the wayside in an attempt to focus on the task of the general uplifting the African American race. That being said I have also experienced times of great pride for the less acknowledged aspects of my genealogy, in this way I have come to identify culturally as African American but will cede that I am composed of Irish, Jewish, and Native American elements., but in societys eyes the sole defining feature of my race is my dark skin rather than what I have come to associate myself. The moniker of mixed has certainly caused some problems in my early life. In my younger years I was both isolated and ridiculed for manifesting traits different from the normal phenotypic expression of African American genes as well as experiencing negative cultural repercussions for partially identifying with the majority race as a minority in times of discrimination. In this way I have experienced some less than favorable reactions to my appearance especially in more rural areas where any interbreeding is often frowned upon by both minority and majority citizens. In a different way I have also experienced a celebration of any diversity within the African American community that bordered on a sort of unhappiness with being just black. Considering the advantages of being perceived as a person of a mixed race is the natural reaction that many people have to the uniting of races. I believe that it is a natural reaction for humans to enjoy the diversification of the gene pool. In this way I believe we are programmed to perpetuate our existence and create new ways to identify ourselves based on characteristics that do not pertain to race. The real advantage of being perceived as a person of mixed race as well as self-identifying as one is the fraternity that many