#racialcaucusgroups

After a while, it upset me to the point where I would deny that I was black altogether and just identify myself as Indian in spite of only being allowed to choose on race. As I got older, I began to identify myself as biracial because I became more aware that my connections to my Jamaican culture were just as equal as my Hindi culture.

After a while, it upset me to the point where I would deny that I was black altogether and just identify myself as Indian in spite of only being allowed to choose on race. As I got older, I began to identify myself as biracial because I became more aware that my connections to my Jamaican culture were just as equal as my Hindi culture.

when we were splitting into the racial caucus groups, one of the options was “muslim” and i, along with others in my group thought this was incorrect labeling, as “muslim” is not a race. however, i am used to people referring to “muslim” as a whole race. muslims come from all over the world. the stereotypical muslim is someone from the middle east perhaps with a beard or headscarf, but not every muslim looks like that, obviously. i, for example, am not seen as looking “muslim enough.” what does that even mean? just because i don’t wear a headscarf and have somewhat lighter features than other muslims doesn’t mean that i am not a muslim. my favorite is when people try to guess my ethnicity and get it wrong, and then blame it on me because i don’t fit into that stereotype. i can choose to dress however i want, but i can’t be blamed for not looking like a stereotypical pakistani girl because my features are not of my choosing.

At first glance this assignment made me very uncomfortable. I absolutely HATE the idea od being split up into groups based on race, racial identity, ethnicity, and cultures. This is probably also because I don’t see much of a difference between people and I never have. I didn’t really learn that people were separated in this way until I first heard the N-word in the third grade. My mother had to explain to me what it was and why the people were so angry that some had used it. As a multiracial person my whole family fits into every aspect of the skin color rainbow. To the point where people don’t even think we are related. As a child all I ever noticed was that I had to use a different crayon for their skin but It was never a huge problem or something I even realty noticed. It was not until I got older, until society started telling me what I was that I even really identified with anything. I just thought “yeah, my skin color is like a coffee with a bunch of milk in it, that's not a problem”. For the caucus groups I thought I would be forced into the box I normally am In, which is Hispanic, but I wasn’t. For once in my lifetime there was a multiracial group and other people that identified as Hispanic PLUS something else. It was great because we got to see that we were not alone in the way the world labeled us. That we are not just one thing and other people aren’t either. It helped me a lot with my own identity to see that other people had similar multiracial struggles even if we were not the exact same thing. I think the only reason society tries to make Multiracial people choose only one is because they know one day everyone will be at least a little percentage multiracial and society is trying to fight it with all their might.

I actually really enjoyed the racial caucus group exercise. Before we did it, I really felt isolated and alone because I thought that I was the only biracial person in the class. I honestly did not even think that a biracial group was going to be created, and even when it was created, I figured that there was only going to be a couple of members in it, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. In our group, I found that a lot of the struggles that I faced growing up as a biracial child were not only specific to me. A lot of the other members of the group faced those struggles as well and it was refreshing to know what I truly was not alone in my experiences. Just being able to talk about my struggles and have others relate to them as well as being able to relate to others made me feel so much better and took a large burden off of my shoulders. I feel like the exercise not only taught me about the different struggles of different racial groups, but it taught me a lot about myself. I tend to isolate myself and keep my struggles inside, thinking that there is no possible way that others are experiencing these same things. However, through this exercise, I learned that even when it seems like I am the only one going through these things, I am not, and I hope to be able to open up to others more and share my feelings. 

I wasn’t a huge fan of the racial caucus group assignment. From the beginning, it made me feel uncomfortable with my own race because we were the first ones called to gather in another classroom. This was where the majority of the discomfort came from. Participating in the group itself wasn’t too bad but I felt like we couldn’t discuss as many racial issues amongst ourselves unless we had the other races come together with us. Despite all of us being white, we did come from different backgrounds and different ways of living. Some of us had interacted with other racial groups when we were children while others didn’t. When we came back into the classroom and discussed as a class, I did not think it was as bad as I expected because I was a little afraid that our group would unintentionally say something that would offend somebody in the room but we didn’t. Each ethnic group was actually struggling with one issue or another and I had wished that we would’ve discussed how to maybe solve these world-wide racism issues a bit more.

The exercise was definitely helpful and I really enjoyed hearing the other groups share as well.