Blog #24

To what extent does the language of racial identity impact the thoughts and actions related to race in the present and future?

Racial Identity is something that no one can ever take away from you. It is there for ever. In today's society America has branded names on certain groups. Such as whites or blacks. If you look just the slightest black, then you are labeled black, even if you aren't. If you are Mexican but look white, then you are considered white. The way that American's just assign names to people creates a sense of racial confusion among the people, and a lack of actual racial identity.

With all of this name calling in America, people seem to loose a sense of who they really are. In this text I was reading called He's Not Black by Marie Arana she discusses how with all of this name calling, people are starting to loose a sense of who they really are. she said "I understand everything you say. I too am a child of two cultures. My mother is German, my father African American. I was born in Germany, speak German and call myself a German-American. But look at me. What would you say I am?" She was referring to her skin, which was light black; her hair, lush and curly; and her eyes, a shining onyx. "I am fifty percent German. But no one who sees me believes it." This is a perfect example of the point I am trying to get across. IF we continue this language set, people will start to loose a sense of who they are, and in time, loose their racial identity.

America has been calling people specific names for so long that in today's society, people are just seen as one race, and nothing more. Marie says in her article "Few who see Barack Obama, it seems, understand that he's 50 percent white Kansan. Even fewer understand what it means to be second-generation Kenyan. It reminds me of something sociologist Troy Duster and bioethicist Pilar Ossorio once observed: Skin color is seldom what it seems. People who look white can have a significant majority of African ancestors. People who look black can have a majority of ancestors who are European." Peoples sense of language has been set for so long that once we see someones skin color, we automatically classify their race, but we don't know the truth. Marie also stated a very good point, a point which to many people rely on, but we need to stop. She said "skin doesn't tell you much. It's an unreliable marker, a deceptive form of packaging."

Many people classify Obama has being just black, but not many people just call him bi-racial. I was In the store the other day and I saw Barack Obama shirts hanging on the walls. The shirts had phrases on them such as "My President is Black", and "Welcome to the Black House". This language that has been set is already set in our minds, we just classify someone as one race. We call Obama black because he is half black. We can't help it. That is just Americans going back to saying, "Oh, he has some black in him so he must be black." This mind set that people have needs to change.

Racial identity has been a challenge over the years because of the language that has been used to classify people. Because of this language, people have a sense of racial confussion as well as a lack of their actually racial identity. As Langston Hughes put it, "I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro' is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. . . . I am brown." This is the mind-set that everyone should have, not just to help yourself out, but to heal the wound of language that has been unhealed for 100's of years.