On The Meritus Of Racial Identity?

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Recommended: Importance of personal and cultural identity

It is important for people of color to not fall short in the hands of the society. The society will bribe and influence people of color to assimilate to the American culture to avoid any sort of confrontation with thei individualism. Society will try to use force to separate people from working towards one another through economics. People of color were told at a young age, in school, or the by the media, that the only way to survive was by remaining silent and do what the society wants. Many people of color want to make changes on how the society is structured but, they feared for the outcome of it. As hooks states, “On a very basic level, changes in the cost of house had a frieghtening impact on college-educated young people of all ethinicities …show more content…

One of the quotes that I thought was interested was, “I began to study Chicano history. If preofessirs wouldnt include the information in class, I made a point to include it on my own” (50). I think this is one of the important factor that plays on sustaining racism. The fact that students are taught with misinformation on how the society was structured or how America was founded. It is crucial that students that are aware of issues to challenge anything that they may see be out of order. Especially when it concerns the history of the past so that people could understand why things are the way that they are or why people act a certain way. Salvador had a lot of individual agency in him to bring awareness for social change and take matters into his own hand when he knew that the teachers were not going to challenged the curriculum that the instituion give them. As he mentioned, it is also important to understand that we must learned to accept that it will take time for certain people to be aware of certain issues just as how it took him a while to become aware of the …show more content…

Anzaldua point out that a person’s identity is through her culture and their native language. In this text, Anzaldua emphasizes that many people especially teachers and her family encourage her to lose her language and perfect English because that is the way for them to be successful. However, Anzaldua states that, “Until I take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself...I will overcome the tradition of silence” (21). Anzaldua points out that if she can’t take pride of her own culture and her background then how can she identify herself? I feel like education cannot be the only factor that contribute to how individual view life. For example, For Anzaldua, her family and her community always criticize her for either not knowing Spanish or because she knows English and does not embrace her culture. In addition, she is constantly in a battle between what she should follow or what her family and her teachers tell her to. I think on this point, Anzaldua knows that if she can’t take pride in her own language then how can she think about English when she can’t even embrace her own culture. Her family 's influence on her on becoming a “certain one” greatly impacted her thinking about her surrounding. Her perspective on learning different language also stem from the feel of wanting to feel acceptance or to fill

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