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What’s in a Race?

Tags: race

Many Americans today have more than one culture, ethnicity, or Race flowing through their veins. For some, their race is what defines them or makes them unique. The issue of race is an interesting topic, and I don’t really think about it too much, except yesterday it became obvious that I felt like someone without a race.

Since I can only speak from my experience as a Mexican-American person, I must say that I actually find it difficult sometimes to balance my life on both sides of the fence. I am loyal and respectful to the reasons why my ancestors chose to come to the United States in the 1960s and I am grateful to have the opportunities I have today, but I also feel a sense of reverence to the history and plight of the Mexican people.

Those of my generation and after have had great opportunities to be able to live and prosper in this country, but there are also many who may question my opinions, struggles, and choices. I have a strong need to be a person of value who can contribute to this society in more ways than one. No one is perfect, none of this is personal, and I have nothing against my fellow Mexicans, but it saddens me to see that many of us still live within our cultural limitations and fall within the stereotypes that prejudices have defined for us.

I will address the issues I have with our lack of growth as a people at another time, but for now, I would like to write about the fact that I felt like a person without a race yesterday. At work, we had to fill out new personal data forms, and I encountered this section on the form:

Please check the appropriate category:
Ethnicity:
Hispanic or Latino ___
Not Hispanic or Latino ___

Race:
Black or African American ___
White ___
American Indian or Alaskan Native ___
Asian ___
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander ___
Two or More Races ___

You probably see my dilemma, and you may think that it’s cut and dry. I can choose my ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino and I can pick one of the races listed or leave the question blank. But it’s not that easy for me, because I am Mexican-American, my parents and grandparents are all from Mexican descent, so none of these options make sense to me. So this intrigued me and I did a little research. According the U.S. Census Bureau, the form at work was missing this category:

  • Some Other Race. Includes all other responses not included in the "White", "Black or African American", "American Indian and Alaska Native", "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" race categories described above. Respondents providing write-in entries such as multiracial, mixed, interracial, We-Sort, or a Hispanic/Latino group (for example, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) in the "Some other race" category are included here.
I don’t remember encountering this dilemma before; perhaps, on other forms I always had a choice of a race I can select from or perhaps I left it blank. I have to say that I am not one who does well within the confines of pre-defined boxes, and I am not happy about the “Some Other Race” choice. But for now, I take solace in that in the “ethnicity” category, as far as forms are concerned, this country is divided by whether you’re Hispanic or not.

Peace Out for now.

~A


This post first appeared on My Side Of Things, please read the originial post: here

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