Racial Identity Essay

787 Words2 Pages

Some people say that racial identity is something that defines a person. Racial identity can affect the person with any life decision or with job situations; and the way certain people would interpret you as who you are. Some times identity can affect you positively or negatively. Identifying someone can affect you and the way you look at a person. People have been stereotyped just because of their perceived identity, or who they have been associated with; friends that they hang out with. There are different ways people describe other people due to there identity George R.R. Martin once stated “ “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it …show more content…

This essay is about a girl who sees the different ways “Negroes” are perceived in a small town. She states that white people constantly remind her that she comes from grandparents who were slaves. It does not bother her, because it happened years ago and slavery was a price they paid for civilization that had nothing to do with her. The only time she feels like her identity is seen as something dangerous is when she 's in a white neighborhood. She feels that she sometimes is not a race but she 's her own self; she identifies herself as a human and not someone who people should be afraid of. The narrator feels discriminated against, but doesn 't feel angry about it. This essay shows that the narrator felt different when it came to skin beautiful dark skin and people with lighter skin than her, like people would discriminate against her for her skin color. Her racial identity was represented as someone was dangerous and someone whose background was from the times when there was slavery and thats how the whites see her; that is how she is identified but she says that it really doesn 't bother …show more content…

Being identified as someone should be more in how you are on the inside rather than why the way you are by the way someone looks. For example, if a student is wearing pants and it’s sagging, with a shirt with profanity on it, it would make you think that he 's not smart and he is the class clown, when in fact he can be the smartest guy in the classroom. A woman’s beauty should not be the only thing that should be important to a person. Someone’s past, like their ancestors, or the color of their skin should not affect who they are being interpreted as. In conclusion, identity is important only when it is seen as being who people really are on the inside instead of what is shown on the outside. Identity can be seen as something negative in the way that you would be judged for something you are not. But it can also be positive because you can prove the person wrong and show them who you really are. Racial identity should allow people to know who you really

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