Race

A social construction of history and society that has had detrimental effects in both realms. Since I can not speak for the world and their individual opinions I will only speak about my personal interaction with this idea of "race." Being a product of an interracial couple this idea of race has always perplexed me. When I looked in the mirror there was no definitive answer to my question of what color or race am I? I mean was I black, white, both and what were the repercussions of the decision I decided to make? To say the least there were and still are at times questions of what racial group I identify with. I began to realize that this idea of race was really the product of societal and historic events and mentalities. As I grew up I noticed that particular personality traits, or preferences were taken into consideration as the world determined what race to associate you with. I mean personally I know that I am both black and white (whatever that means) but I grew up with an affinity to being black. Even though people will constantly remind me that I was half white on the whole I always associate with my "blackness." When you really think about it this whole idea of race is pretty crazy. After you get past the point of decided who is what race/color then within that race/color there are even more distinctions to be made. Now I know that trying to make it so people don't see others as a color or stereotype is impossible I think we can definitely change our mentality towards race. People are people and they are who they are. The color of their skin does not dictate the music they like, the people they enjoy spending time with, or anything else. People have beliefs and ideologies that are not rooted in skin pigmentation but in the minds that we all as humans possess and hopefully utilize. I understand that our history and society has made race a HUGE issue but we still have the ability to affect the present and future perception and understanding of this social constructed concept.