Race and My Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Race and My Community - Essay Example Although I don't look different, the fact that I am not a pure Chinese makes some people stop and think, and depending on their personal experience, they adjust their behavior towards us. My community is a pretty mixed up place, but I don't mean we are confused. No, there may be few of mixed Japanese-Chinese ancestry as I am, but the neighborhood is crawling with people from different parts of the country who have come to the capital, where I live, in order to study, find work, or stay with their families. This is how race becomes an issue, something that one would not expect from an island nation such as ours, but it does. Contrary to popular belief, not all the Chinese are of the same race. Neither are all the Asians of the same race. The label "Asian American" in countries like the United States says a lot about the confusion of the racialized Western mind that thinks that we are all the same race. We can be as white as the Japanese and the Koreans or as dark as Indians or Pakistanis or Arabs. My being half-Japanese just makes the classification more exciting. I enjoy the care and attention I get from people who think I am not the same as they are, but I also suffer when others think that I don't belong, since I am neither pure Chinese nor pure Japanese, but this is something I have learned to adapt to since I was small, and when my friends learn more about me, they adapt. That is why they are my friends: we have many things in common, but also many things that are different. Our community leaders are open to us. They are helpful and are doing a good job with everyone regardless of color or ethnic origin, because most of them are also immigrants from other parts of the country. I think this is what education and moving out of your place of birth does to people. You learn quickly that even a small country like mine is really a big place where all of us can live happily together. I wish I could say the same thing of leaders in other communities. A friend from another part of town was just telling me that their leader, who happened to have migrated from the south of the country many decades ago, was discriminating against immigrants from other regions and favoring those from his town. I don't think that is right. I think a leader should treat people the same way a parent would treat their children. Help the kids grow up and learn, because life in this world is not easy. After thinking about it, I think racialization - the construction of racially unequal social hierarchies characterized by dominant and subordinate social relations between groups (Marable, 2004)- works both ways. Others find it useful to support their own hidden intentions, which can be good or bad. This is why it is good because people become more educated and sensitive on this issue so that there is less racialization in society. But it is also bad, because we might reach a point when we become paralyzed by racialization that life stops becoming fun. One example I can cite, which is related to information by or about people like me that can be found in texts or work manuals, is the impression people get when they see a strange name as the author of something, a speech, article, or a book.