Culture creates and shapes person identity, and not their skin tone. Currently in the United States there is still this idiotic perception, that a person skin tone defines what culture they belong to, and that is wrong. In “Black and Latino” by Roberto Santiago he shares how he is a black Latino but at the same time he shares the Latino culture because that is the type of house hold he was brought up in. “She was white, and she shouted, “Shut up you fucking nigger”(Redd190) !This comment was made by a white police officer when he was a child. This statement shows how government officials look at skin complexions and how this forces all people to judge off a person skin complexion. Political Science has shown, through the U.S. different census that they do break everything up into color, and they identify people that way (Roskin156). Sociologists have also proved that a person associates who they are with what their culture is and not their complexion (Kimmel222). “Many light- brown people will be classified as Latino by Anglos in East Texas. Many Spanish speaking very- dark-skinned people probably won’t” (Gracia 34) .This statement shows how in the United States, Afro- Latinos are being forced to choose and identify with one racial group. Forcing, Afro- Latinos to identify as a certain race isolates them from the African American community. Afro- Latino questioning of their identity allow other people to place negative stereotypes on them.
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| Culture is Power |
Work Cited
Gracia, Jorge. Race or Ethnicity. 1. 1. New York: Cornell University, 2007. 248. Print.
Kimmel, Michael. Sociology Now. Custom . 1. New
York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Boston, San Francisco, Singapore, Madrid, Cape
Town: Pearson, 2009. 248. Print.
Redd,
Teresa. Revelations . 5. 1. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney:
Pearson, 2010. 383. Print.
Roskin,
Michael. Political Science an Introduction. 12. 4. Boston,
Columbus, Indianapolis, New York, San Francisco: Pearson, 2012. 350. Print.
I really enjoyed this post on how a persons skin tones does not define their culture but actually defines their identity. The piece by Roberto Santiago is a great example for your claim and really supports it.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post. I don't think that a person's skin tone should define their culture or their identity. Skin color is such a superficial trait that it shouldn't have any bearing on who a person is.
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