Ethnic Minority Groups Lewis-McCoy: REVISION: TO BE MIXED OR NOT TO BE MIXED

Shade Castillo Mack October 03,2016

TO BE MIXED OR NOT TO BE

My mother is Dominican and my father is African American, I believe that I am two races. I believe this because growing up I felt that one side is African roots and the other side is Dominican roots they are not the same therefore I identify myself as mixed. Growing up I will hear people say that I am mixed and others say that I am only black, but how can this be when my mother is Dominican. African culture and Dominican culture share some customs but they are still different in language, clothes, food, flag and more so why am I being told that I am just black. Through out elementary school and high school the history books only show Africans being slaved I never was taught about other race being slaved until I got to college and it was a different ball game. Here is where I learned that many other race were being slaved and I had no idea that it's a bigger picture than black vs. white but yet again different cultures different countries and those were the main identities one will have to fit into. I learned that Latinos were enslaved and the Dominican Republic is apart of that term so maybe people were right I am "just black" through my roots and what ever else I maybe mixed with but to me I feel that I'm still mixed because of the many differences but now I am enlightened of my roots and that even though we all may look, act, talk, dress different we are all the same.

According to the PBS Documentary, "Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1" race is not biological; us the people are not genetically different. The students in the film of different race looked at their DNA and were surprised by the results; they were a lot closer than what they thought. According to the film the reason behind this is because of people mixing, breeding and moving in any population we are like mixed breed and the common source is Africa where civilization started. Although we have all these facts that we are close socially we are still different in the world. Race is an idea, society has divided people based on status, religion, color, location and more in the whole white vs. blacks but in in Latin America there is more "Latin America, all of a sudden, became a new "racial" category defined not by blood or skin color but by marginal status (determined by a myriad of markers such as geographical location and language) in relation to Southern Europeans and in the shadow of the fifth side of the ethnical-racial pentagon"(Mignolo 73). Another thing that proves race is a social thing is the census on page 565 in Latino/"Hispanic"-Who Needs a Name? The Case against Standardized Terminology (Gimenez, Martha1989) to me people can check off their origin or what country they come from which is a support of my thinking of being mixed. From watching all the films and reading the articles I feel the same way but I have an open mind of what some of this mean, the terminology and history is very tricky but I am more aware now than before.