#etnicity

[xxbrowneyedbeautyloverxx]

If you've ever wondered where I come from here you go

[tf-tumbler]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXEUh61o18c)

[zvetenze]

Questions by Aletta, instituut voor vrouwengeschiedenis Via Flickr

[hjolko]

A study published on 22 April (and currently under review) looked at how likely faculty were to respond to a request to meet with a student to informally discuss potential research opportunities — a scenario picked as a proxy for the many informal events that could boost an academic career and which fall outside institutions’ formal checks and balances. They found — overwhelmingly — that professors of all groups were more likely to respond to white men than women and black, Hispanic, Indian or Chinese students. Academics at private universities and in subjects that pay more on average were the most unresponsive.

Discrimination starts even before grad school, study finds

[capricorn020196]

It's true!! "Love All, Trust a Few and Do Wrong to None" - Shakespeare 

[positivelyscarred-blog]

I'm Not a Race

(Note: This post was inspired by THIS POST HERE.)

I'm Latina. BUT... a lot of your Spanish words are lost on my ears. I'm Italian. BUT... I didn't grow up with bella figura being important. I'm Irish. BUT...I've never celebrated Samhain. I didn't grow up wearing my race around my neck. I grew up in a very American household, with my very American parents, with our very American traditions.

I was twelve years old when I first experienced how cruel people could be about race, and how painful ethnic slurs are. I had fled from my group of white friends after sixth grade. Not because they were white--racial and ethnic backgrounds have never played a role in who my friends are--but because I was a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. They were all popular and from rich families and did sports and were involved in clubs and I just. Didn't. Fit. So, I made new friends and found people I was comfortable with.

The group just happened to be very culturally Mexican. They all spoke Spanish, acted "Mexican," shared the same slang, watched novellas, and came from households where Spanish was the first language. Some of them came from households that received welfare checks. And in my area, growing up in the 90's, that was a very cultural thing. I basically went from one extreme to the other in terms of who I surrounded myself with.

I've always known about my heritage. My race. My ethnicity. My cultural background. But, that has never been "me." It isn't who I am in my personality, my clothes, my way of speaking, my thoughts, anything. But I am very much that culture, it's in my blood. I have the blood of my Mayan ancestors coursing trough my veins. I have the struggle of "my people" in my heart. I may not have grown up as my fellow Latinas did, but I am still very much that. I am Latina.

So when my former and current groups of friends exchanged words, I was torn. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I ended up in the Principal's office and was going to go to mediation. (Until the Principal was like, "really? you've gotta be kidding me" and canceled it.) My former best friend, whose mother dated my father, was a part of this ordeal. And then the comment was made (by the mother)... "It's because she's hanging out with those Mexicans."

...What?

Excuse me?!

Since when was anything I ever did about race? About skin color? About culture? About ethnic background?

Since when is Mexican a bad thing? Was it bad when you dated and fucked my father? Was it bad when you put on "Mexican" music and dance around like you had dark skin? My mother was pissed. I was hurt. You'd think someone had called me a "wetback" with how we reacted.

To me, a person's ethnic/racial/cultural background has never been something I've cared about. I have very diverse friends. I friends who are Finnish, Colombian, German, French, Dutch, and El Salvadorian. I have friends who are JUST American. I have friends who come from different backgrounds, but they are whatever-American.

I do not identify a person as their race, as their culture, as their ethnicity. I define people by who they are as an individual. People are individuals with diverse histories. I love to hear stories about people growing up a certain way, in a certain culture, with certain traditions because that helps define who we become as individuals. But, I don't say, "Oh, this is my Finnish friend..." or "That's so-and-so, my German friend."

Yes, I'm Mexican. I'm also Italian and Irish. I'm proud of my culturally and racially diverse background. But they are not who I am as an individual.

[fornsed-blog]

I hate how the word "viking" is still used as a name for an ethnicity. A bit like calling al 19th century Americans "Cowboys" regardless of proffesion, station socially or geographical situation.