Race does not define us

Race is part of our own personal identity. Just as instrumental in our identification as whether we are popular or unpopular, single or in a relationship, or living comfortably or struggling day to day. These classifications allow others to get a sense of who we are without having any type of personal interaction with us. Racial classifications just aren’t fair because they allow others to generalize us; and each of us is unique in our own special way. Generalizations are dangerous because they can come with stereotypes. Unfortunately stereotypes are a prominent stigma in how we perceive race: Mexican men rely on “machismo” to assert themselves, Black people are great at sports, Chinese people are good with finances, Jewish men make great husbands, etc., etc., etc. What does this mean, do, or serve? I am the mother of two well-rounded Chicano boys and they are not macho. They don’t even know what macho means. I have played basketball with my friend Maurice (who happens to be black) and it was not a memorable experience, and my co-worker Lizelle’s (Chinese) Macy’s, Sear’s, and Target cards are all maxed out. I don’t think race is a good way to classify people because race doesn’t come with concrete definitions. “Good” classifiers are personal characteristics because they are definitive: honest/dishonest, monogamous/promiscuous, friendly/unfriendly, caring/uncaring, generous/stingy, etc. These are characteristics that we all possess and accurately define who we are. We are either honest or dishonest. The great thing about these types of identifiers is that they are not set in stone as in the case of race. We are born “brown” and will die “brown” (or white, yellow, red, black, etc.). We can be promiscuous at one point in our lives and monogamous during another chapter of our lives. We are evolving, growing, maturing, and “bettering ourselves” every step of the way. It is not fair to carry an identifier our whole lives that has no definitive significance. Racial pride is a good thing to have but should not have anything to do with who we are intrinsically. For this reason I believe that we should be allowed to check more than one race on the Census Bureau if we identify with more than one (as is the case with most of us). In having to choose one race to best classify ourselves we are being forced to deny the rest of ourselves (even if only in the checking of a box). We should be proud of who we are and where we come from. There is no just cause to deny anything that we are not ashamed of even through an act as minute as the checking of a box on a Census Bureau.