Essay On Race and Ethnicity: My Critical Response Essay Example

đź“ŚCategory: Race and Ethnicity, Sociology
đź“ŚWords: 940
đź“ŚPages: 4
đź“ŚPublished: 20 June 2021

I know we have all, or at least most of us, been in a place where we felt discriminated against, belittled, or just felt out of place simply because of our appearance or our background. Society often might make us feel like we need to be, act, or look a certain was and it often puts ourselves down if standards are not met. I have been in that place where because of how I look and my cultural background, I felt less than others and was often excluded. I was fortunate enough to change the way I saw myself; I believe that being different and embracing how different we are should always be important and a good thing because it makes part of who we are. 

As an example, growing up there was several things about myself that I was self-conscious about which I now have worked on. I grew up in a pretty white populated area. I can almost say I was one of the few dark completed girls in the classrooms. I never realized what discrimination because of culture or appearance felt like until my early school years. I was always insecure about my color of skin simply because I did not look like the “pretty girls” in my school as many people called the light skin girls. I often felt left out of certain activities during my middle school such as school dances and parties because of how I looked. I was often called “beaner” because I’m Mexican or often told I had the color of a tire among other mean things which would only make me hate who I was even more. My family also would put me down, I would often hear comments such as, and I translate from Spanish, “You have to marry a white complected guy in order to have cute white babies”. Being bullied growing up because of my appearance just put my self-esteem down.

Moving to my High school phase everything started to change. As my mind matured along with the way of thinking about myself, the perspective I had of myself also changed. We all have different ways of dealing with our insecurities mine was going around people who looked like me. I started traveling a lot around Mexico with family and just seeing beautiful people with dark skin tones and how much they were appreciated over there made me less self-conscious. Soon I realized that is what identifies my country and me. Also, on my Instagram, I started getting a lot of followers out of the nowhere and I started getting promotion opportunities and many just admired my skin color and how I would embrace my culture. This really helped me realized how beautiful my color of skin was and helped me pick up my self-esteem. All the opportunities that came to me made me feel not excluded anymore and love myself the way I am. 

Along the same lines, my story is very similar to “My Jewish Nose” from Lisa Miya-Jervis. Jervis explains her life growing up as a Jewish and her cultural features. She explains how a certain feature of her culture is a bigger nose than usual and goes on about how her family members would try for her to change it through surgery just as they did in their younger age. She refuses to change how her nose looks, as she argues it is what distinguishes her and her cultural background. Although she had the chance to change the way she looks through surgery whereas I do not because there is not certain procedure where I could change my skin of color, I still identify myself with her. She went against her cultural expectations and embraced the way her nose was not only because she was born like that but because it was a one of her culture’s physical characteristics and now speaks out on it. I also went against the thoughts about me of other people and embraced my color realizing that is what makes me beautiful and unique. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, I never knew what discrimination based on how I look or my culture felt like or even what it was. Similar to my situation, “Baby” by Bell Hooks is a story on how a little girl is awakened of what discrimination is and how different she was from other people through her dolls. She explains how she was always bought white complected barbies and dolls because that was simply what was on the market. She started to realize most of the dolls looked nothing like her skin tone. She was then gifted a doll with her same dark skin color to which her parents told her it was hard to find. That’s when she realized how she is part of a minority group. She goes on about how it became her favorite doll and how she learned to embrace her skin color regardless of being consider a minority. My story is similar to her because as children we are often so innocent to even know or think what discriminations is. Often, we are hit by society what discrimination is based on race, gender, or appearance by going through it rather than being taught at home. I was also hit by society about how I’m different than other people and also known as a minority. Although at the beginning it put me down, I learned that my culture is a part of me and even if I’m consider a minority, I should be proud of it.

In conclusion, we all have different ways of dealing with stuff like insecurities based on looks, gender, or even our background. What I say to society is, be who you are, embrace who you are, and never let anybody put you down because of who you are or how you look. Everybody is so different and that’s a great thing, it makes us unique, and it distinguish us from the rest of the people. I believe we should always be proud of every aspect that makes us up. 

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