If I were a victim it would take a different society to make me able to speak out. It would take a world that wouldn’t label me as the hurt girl. The physiologically damaged girl who is somehow less able to walk through life happily then someone who was never sexually abused. It would take a world that would view me as strong and not weak because of the abuse. I would take a world that would be less likely to pity me but empower me. It would take a society of listeners that just listen to my words rather than be quick to spit out solutions. It would take a society of people that don’t judge me but make themselves available for emotional support. Meaning just not looking to do anything but be there in that moment and be able to connect to my words. It would take a world meaning my world the streets I walk and my environment to not remind me of what happened but to make an effort to move forward wile not ignoring the past. It would take a world that wouldn’t even think to put any kind of blame on me but on the actions of the abuser. It would take a world that would be willing to make an open forum for people to come forward that have thoughts that would lead them to abusing another without consequences that would harm them for the rest of their life. It would take a world that is proactive to these issues then reactive. It would take a world that is willing to listen to what I want then what they think should be done. It would take a world that is willing to change and would actually change starting now. It would take a world that understands that I would be exposing the deepest darkest depths of my pain that I carry everyday and is nothing to take lightly. It would take a people that is willing to walk be through my pain in resolution and healing. Then to get tired too quickly of my realness that they run away from my pain but don’t realize I cant run away like them. It would take a world that realized that I wouldn’t be the only one that experienced this abuse but there is many more that needs to speak up. I need a world that would stand by me in the aftermath of my truth and believe what I am saying and stay strong with me. Unfortunately, I don’t live in a world that has these things I need so instead of speaking up I will stay silent until the world changes or until I change.

My mom is Haitian and she speaks creole but she never taught me because my dad only speaks English. I am 21 years old and I have gotten used it because I have had to listen to language I halfway understand for a long time. It doesn’t make me uncomfortable but it is frustrating because I want to engage in the conversation with my mom r people with other languages. For example, I went to France one summer and my family from there was speaking in French and just really wanted to be in the conversation. When people are in a group and they are like all laughing or enjoying themselves talking about some topic you want to be included to right? Maybe if I was just exposed to English my whole life and never heard other languages I would probably be uncomfortable with other languages. But fortunately, I am not I just get very frustrated when I don’t understand something and I try my best to put the words together with the knowledge I know. I always wonder to myself why didn’t my mother ever take the time to teach me her language or why didn’t she teach my father to put more importance on leaning creole and English. I believe that frustration could possibly be there when you don’t understand a language that is around you because you want to understand. But being uncomfortable because they should be speaking your language around you is a different story. That is like another level of neuroticism that I do not endorse. I believe people should strive to learn about other people rather than making people feel obligated to learn about you. My father who is Italian American second generation spoke English in his house his whole life was more affected by the France experience than I was. I felt like he expected my moms family to try to speak English to him more then him trying to communicate in there language. Maybe that was not he case but through my eyes that’s how I felt. I guess when you are in another country and your only way of communicating is speaking to your wife then having your while tell the people what you are saying is hard. But you can take the optimistic side of it and try to learn at the same time. I feel when people get to that place of not wanting to learn like my dad that is when you expect people to cater to you when it comes to communication. To conclude, the process of trying to learn and being interested in another language can possibly take a way being uncomfortable but can also be frustrating.

Racism in my opinion is defined as discrimination against someone based on race. Also It believing that you are better than someone else based on race. Also it is believing that a certain group of people are less than human because of race alone. Racism is also choosing that one race is better than the other in every way possibly physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and socially and that your race is somehow better just because of race. I have experienced racism and I have seen it done in a few ways.
One kind of racism that I have experienced is overt racism like when a person is outspoken about their racism. When I was a freshman there was a black history board put up in the dorms for black history month and like a week or two after it was put up. Someone wrote “nigga” in black marker all over the board. Another instance, when I was a sophomore one of the people in my apartment building who was white said to his friend on mlk day “why the niggers get a holiday and proceeded to say “happy nigger day”. Also I have to remind you that I am biracial so I am half Italian and half Haitian. My grandmother who is white has said countless comments that I can’t really rely to you because there is so many. The most hurtful one is when she basically said my mom( who is black)wasn’t as good as someone who was white for his son and that her young daughter need to marry someone that looked like her. Another instance, when I was in a restaurant with my white family and i was the only one who wasn’t severed and I was asked if I was with tem even thou I was sitting with them. Then when everyone was almost done and my aunt complained I finally got my food. At the time I did not realize that was racism because I was too young but looking back on it was definitely racism.
I have seen racism done on other people as well. When I was a junior last year I saw my friend be called a nigger to his face by a white person in a non-joking manner. Also my female friends were called a nigger one night partying downtown when they got into a argument white a group of white people. In the end it sucks to be discriminated against but it is part of my life. Only thing I could do is open people’s eyes when I speak out my mouth when they say something offensive. I can educate people and try to work on things in love toward everyone because we all have a little racist in us.

I feel there is absolutely nothing wrong with hanging out with people from another culture. Just because you surrounded with people who don’t exactly look like you doesn’t mean that you forget about your race or culture. As a biracial individual in society, I feel I get the best of both world where I am comfortable with both sides of my racial identity. I understand that I look “black” so I know people will always judge because they just don’t understand. So I really don’t care what they think because there is nothing wrong with being with different people. We have to remember what make us “humans” different from one another. Humans are 99.9% similar to each other and the .01% difference causes so trouble but in all reality its not a big difference at all. My white or Asian peers are not any smarter, better, more attractive or any other attribute then my black peers. For example, in high school everyone knew I was biracial so they would make fun at time and not accept me as a black girl fully. They would say they I wasn’t black and I didn’t go through life experiencing things like they did. Even though, I clearly “looked” black they didn’t want to think that this “light skin” girl has really seen things through “black” lenses or eyes. On the other hand, my white peers in high school because my high school was very diverse saw me as a black girl in every way possible. They didn’t see me as a white girl like my black peers perceived me. They saw me as I looked which is expected. So my point is no mattered how I looked or what I did I was accepted in the races I was born into which shapes they way I think about this question. In life, people will encounter may people who “look” and are from a variety of different cultures. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with being with people who don’t look like you. My friends from different cultures have nothing to do with they ideas and research I do in my own cultures. My friends don’t have anything to do with if I think about and really delve into the idea of being different with two races. That’s on my part to do for me to truly understand my world and be ok. People will always judge no matter what. Everyone has an opinion on how everyone else should live but they don’t even look on how their own racial identity affects their life. Please understand if I may say this enough time…There is nothing wrong with having friends from different races and you are not a poser because you are not them.

Let me start off by stating my race so you can better understand where I am coming from. I am half Italian and half Haitian and I look like I am a light skinned black person. That being said, since I look “black” sometimes I feel black and treated like a black person with a catch. The catch is that white people view me and treat me as a black person and most other races do to except the black race around me. Black people don’t include me in their experiences as if I don’t experience them in the same way they do. So it leaves me sometimes lost, angry, confused, or frustrated. This idea of being left in the middle shapes a lot of I view the world. I feel like I start off on a different level then people who were born one race. I start off with exposure to 2 kinds of people without looking directly looking at color until I am made aware of it. My races shape how I view the world because it gives me eyes to look through in a way. For example, the fact that I am a woman or my religion or the state I live in all give me eyes to look through when I view the world. I feel like being exposed to two different sides and hearing racist white people in my family as well as racist black people in my family. I see things a bit more open and ready to listen to other people because I have had to deal with close-minded people on both sides on continuous opposing views. I look at things as an opportunity to expand my mind and see things beyond my race in a way that I know and except that our system is broken and that there are no quick fixes to our problems in our society as Americans. I have come to a place where I know that and I like to think I operate and have the state of mind that I will get what I want out of life if I go for it. I also understand at the same time my race shapes how I view things and that idea shapes the choices I make in every aspect of life. Like what I wear, how I speak, what I choice to agree or disagree with. I still choose what to wear or my opinions about different subjects but my race tells me what options I have in choosing. For example, there are some things black people don’t normally wear and there are some items that black people are known for wearing. If I see an ad for clothes and the model is black and there is another model that is white. I feel like I would more likely want what is on the black person because that is the world I live in especially if she looked mixed just like me.

I want to start off answering this question by stating that racial inequalities will never be diminished at least in the United States. Racial inequality is so ingrained in our society that we don’t even notice when it is in our faces such as institutional racism and latent discrimination that was discussed in class. For example, the video about the black doll and the white doll showed a prime example of how people unconsciously view black as bad and white as good. Another example, I might be crazy for mentioning this but even in food choices “angel’s food cake” which is white and “devil’s food cake” which is brown. Maybe its religion or something else but the idea that darkness is evil and light is good comes into play when it comes to racism because people automatically or unconsciously think that lightness or whiteness is better the darkness or blackness. So the idea of diminishing racial inequality will never happen as long as there are separate races and then as human beings are we will find a way to separate each other more. Human beings will always find a way to separate each other and no matter if they are the same race so the idea of treating someone less as human because of something in there dna that they can’t is something that will never change because of human nature.
Thus, gay inequalities will be diminished I feel very soon at least in the next 20 to 30 years maybe less because the world is more excepting of gay people. The media takes part in this by supporting gay people and “Hollywood” supports gay people as well. Our society, besides the radical Christians and Muslims make it seem like it wrong to not except the gay lifestyle. So it’s like people are being coerced into believing that its right so that they get used to it enough and its like the same as being heterosexual where no one even thinks twice about it. This is great for gay people because they are increasingly being included in our society without resistance. The idea of people being really ok with it internally is a different story. I feel that a gay person is gay but you won’t necessarily know that from a first impression before the person says a word. On the other hand, most of the time you know when a person is black, white, Hispanic, or Asian because it’s on the physical outer appearance and before they say a word you can judge them just on that. Being gay compared to being a different race then the majority more of a internal thing because you have to tell someone you are gay before they would know for sure but a lot of the time you won’t have to do that with race.

In our society, women are seen as gentle human beings who are not meant to do harm to anyone. This may be because woman bare children and become mothers or because most woman are considerably smaller then man “who knows” but for what ever reason woman are seen as “innocent” because of the way they look. Maybe it’s the fact that men run our society and they are so neurotic that they feel like woman don’t have the capacity to do wrong. We grow up as young children at least I did knowing that boys do “rough” things and girls do “girly” things. So women are seen as “not” feminine if they are outside playing in the dirt like the boys. Growing up, I would play with my brother but sometimes I would play too rough n hurt him like any kid could possibly do. My mom would never punish me that bad if it was my fault but if my brother ever laid a hand on me it would be really bad. This is an example in my eyes of the bias that men can do more harm then woman. Woman are seem as these creatures that have a great capacity for compassion and those same compassionate woman are not capable of doing wrong things.
Some races are seen as more innocent for the simple reason of society directs us to believe so then we believe it. The reason it self isn’t so simple because it’s so in grained our society that we don’t even notice it anymore. For example, if you go to a restaurant and you have bad service by a white person you would probably not think all white people give bad service and welcome the next white waiter that comes your way. Say you go to another restaurant and have a black waiter that gives you bad service, I bet that the next time you are waited on or have bad service with a black person your going to remember that first time you had bad service from a black person. So what I am saying is white people are seen as “good” and we want to forgive them no matter what they do. Black people aren’t necessarily seen as “bad” but are more likely to be “bad” more then white people so we automatically think because he/she is black they must have done something wrong more than someone would think a white person did something wrong. I would put Asians in the same category as white and the lighter skinned Hispanic or latinos as well. This idea of black is bad and white is good is so ingrained in American society that even black people do it to themselves. I believe that a black person saw two(one white one black) people accused of something he would more likely think the white person is more innocent.

These are complex questions for me to answer because I naturally don’t want to classify myself or want to identify what I am to the world. The main reason for this is because I feel like as an American they always ask you to and I am feeling a bit rebellious. The first classification that I fight against the most is “religion” because religion is such a man made thing and it takes away from what I actually believe. So I classify myself not as a Christian or born-again Christian or nondenominational Christian but I classify myself as person who is a believer in Jesus which is not just what I believe but it is who I am and what I do. Classifying myself this way takes away the tradition that people have put in front of me my whole life. Which causes me feel like this is my lifestyle rather than tradition that I am supposed to have because they call me a “Christian”. Like you have to think about, Did Jesus call his disciples Christians? No, he didn’t he just said follow me and believe and that is what I do.
Another classification that has been chosen for me is that I am a woman. What comes with this is that the ideas of being feminine. Since the day I was born so many things in my environment caused me to be the woman I am today. From wearing pink, to dresses and skirts, to an overprotective father all have shaped me to be who I am. Honestly, I am perfectly fine with it for some odd reason. For the longest I fought against those things but eventually I stopped fighting and just accepted it and I like it.
Now, when it comes to race things get a little complex for me because I really don’t have an idea of where my identity lies. Like in almost every survey in my life I have always put “other” as my ethnicity. I feel so wrong choosing one side of me over the other when I let the world know what I am. I know what I look like but I really don’t know how to classify myself besides being biracial and majority of the time that is not even option. My parents really didn’t focus on color or race growing up because that wasn’t important. I didn’t even realize I was different then my extended family until I was in middle school. I don’t know if the way my parents handled it was a good thing or not. In college, I started asking myself these questions if I am “black” or if I am “white”. At the end of the day I don’t choose because I am both and that is how I classify myself.

I am the product of an interracial marriage. My mother is black (Haitian) and my father is white (Italian). I first have to explain my family a little before I answer this question so that you can understand where I am coming from. My parents brought me up to be traditional Christian nondenominational child until about 4 or 5 years ago they loosened up a lot. So I was taught to be pursued not to pursue when it comes to men. I look like a black girl besides the fact that my skin is light but I have more black features like wider nose, my higher cheek bones, etc.
That being said, I have no problem with interracial dating. I would like to do more of it but because of the way I was brought up I mainly get approached by brown and black people and this is a bad excuse but that what I have to deal with. I think dating outside your race is great because it gives you a chance to fall for someone who looks different than you and you get a chance to fall in love with those aspects of difference. I feel like it would be a good idea to just explore and have fun with it. At the end of the day ,at least you can say that you learned something. Maybe if I were bolder I would have more opportunity to date outside my race more often. I think people are simply just people no matter what color your skin is and if you allow yourself the opportunity to be in the midst of more different cultures, ethnicities and races things can only get better from there. My issue is that I don’t mind dating people who don’t look like me but will they want to date me? Will I ever be accepted enough to be approached by people who are white, Latino, or even Asian?
In my life, I have been called many ethnicities like Dominican, Egyptian, or simply exotic and that distinct look I have that in my dna is what makes me who I am. Who is that secure in themselves to approach someone who they have no clue as to what they are? Maybe its not that deep and I am over thinking or maybe looking at me you don’t’ no what to expect my background to be unless you assume I’m just this “light skin black girl” or some “ exotic looking woman” or “ mixed breed”. Lastly, I am all for interracial dating but are they all for dating a biracial human being or are they just to scared of the unknown?