DLC Blog

Race and Identity, part 1

Issues of race, ethnicity, and identity have often been behind major fights in our society, both physically and politically. As we become an even more diverse country, we encounter ever more complicated issues. And for those of you studying Spanish, the concept of labeling people “Hispanic,” “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc. will continue to provide a HUGE amount of controversy in coming years. This week I will talk about some general ideas behind “race” in this country; next time I will focus more on the issues behind terms such as “Hispanic.” First Let me start with a little story…

The shouting was horrendous that night last summer. The young man was flailing his arms and screaming all sorts of swear words and nonsense at the top of his lungs. Normally I would get as far away as I could, but he was by the entranceway to my apartment building. I was afraid, but I worked up the nerve to ask him to quiet down and leave. He started running around and threatening me, saying awful things that I can’t repeat here. When I saw a chance I got to safety and called the police; by then he had run off.

When the 911 operator asked me to describe the man, I said that he was about medium height, skinny, wearing this and that and with light skin. She then asked me what race he was. I said I don’t know, he was pretty light but my vision wasn’t that good. This wasn’t the time to launch into a discussion of how I believe that “race” is made-up and I don’t believe in classifying people based on certain “defining characteristics” that have nothing to do with the kind of people we are. But she needed an answer for the police report. She asked, “Was he a white guy, a black guy, Asian, Hispanic, or mixed?” Writing this, it just sounds even more ridiculous. There are thousands of different cultures and societies in the world and the United States, even Washington state, represents nearly all of them. How can we just say that there are four “types” of people (by the way, I realized later that she didn’t include the Native American/American Indian category that you usually see), and you’re either one of those groups, or maybe mixed? I ended up saying the threatening guy was white, whatever that means, because we know that “white” people have certain skin, hair, eyes, etc. so we can lump them all together…just like all “black” people are the same, and all “Asian” people and “Hispanic” people…right, you see how ridiculous it is.

(Speaking of "race"....Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete, won the long jump race at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The Nazi government, sponsor of those Olympics, believed in the superiority of the "Aryan race" and was dismayed by the victory of others)

Anyhow, in college I have learned that the continent with the most genetic diversity among its people is Africa, and that the Caucasus Mountain region (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya) between Russia and the Middle East has the most language groups in the world. On standard US Census and other forms, the “Asian” category is by far the most extensive, covering every region of origin from Eastern Siberia to the Philippines to Kyrgizstan to Sri Lanka. If you are from one mile west of the “race line” between Iran and Pakistan, you are officially “Caucasian/European/White,” and if you are from one mile east of the line you’re officially “Asian” Until recently there was no option to mark multiple heritages, and there is a growing movement that includes myself to simply mark “other” or leave such forms blank. Officially I’m “white” or by some definitions “mixed white and Hispanic,” but the last time I checked I have somewhat peachy-colored skin and my family is from a hodgepodge of countries in Europe and the Middle East.

So, the question is, does our national fixation with issues of race and ethnicity mean we are all racists? I don’t mean that in the sense that we’re all a bunch of bigots, but I mean that should we even worry about what “color” people are? For example in France, the government doesn’t ask for racial information on forms or keep track of it, like for Affirmative Action-type programs or to monitor fair hiring practices. That doesn’t mean that France is an egalitarian paradise; there is certainly racism there, too. When I was in Spain, some people considered Castilians a different “race” from Catalonians, others considered all Romance speakers to be the “Latin” race as opposed to other Europeans being Anglo, Slavic, Nordic, etc., or some people see it as European and Everyone Else. In Commonwealth countries (formerly part of the British Empire, such as Canada, Australia, etc.) and the UK, because societal composition is different from the US, they have different “races.” Asian means from the Indian subcontinent only, for example, while Middle Eastern or Arabic are considered their own race (which is especially confounding because most people in the Middle East actually aren’t Arabic, most people who describe themselves as Arabic are technically from North Africa, and many people we consider Arabic are from Berber or other backgrounds that are simply lumped into one).

In conclusion for this week, remember to respect the diversity of all those around us. I do recognize that many systems of “race” classification are meant to help individuals and society, but I just want to caution people on relying on stereotypes or making generalizations about people. The most important thing is to be yourself and not let others define you.

Here is a Q&A that the Census did about racial categories
Here is DLC info on racism

Posted by Josh on January 5, 2007 02:56 PM.