Identify Yourself

         Caucasian? African? Oriental? Latino? How do you identify yourself? Or, is it a combination of a few? In the last generation, our society has become more and more open to different races, multiracial and biracial individuals. Yet, the majority of individuals do not view all races as equal. A prime example that I have recently noted is that one of my high school friends on Facebook stated that she watched a white male walk past a parked car, she followed suit and as she passed the same car, she could hear the car doors lock. She is African-American. Not only is this hurtful, but it is an extremely racist action. The only reason the girl in the car locked the door was due to my friend's ethnicity. How can one make such a quick conclusion on the morals of another? Like the saying goes, do not judge a book by it's cover. 

       Speaking of covers, recently several well-educated African-American graduates have been "Whitening their Resumes" in order to higher their likelihood of receiving a callback on job opportunities. The New York Times published an article that goes into further detail of this phenomenon at 'Whitening' the Resume. This is very sad that people must change their resumes in order to have a fair shake at jobs. I spoke with my father on this topic because he hires people regularly. I questioned if he receives two resumes, one from an individual with an African name and one from an individual with a Caucasian name if he would call the Caucasian first just based off names. He assured me that both candidates would have the same chance at securing the job. Although this is just one person, it leads me to believe not all of those hiring solely judge people's capabilities based off of their ethnicity. 

  

         Interracial couples have become more frequent in the last decade. In 2010, 1 in 10 couples, or 5.4 million couples, were interracial. This indicates a 28% increase since 2000 (Households with Partners of a Different Race). Also, there are several interracial celebrity couples, Kim and Kanye, Heidi and Seal, Mariah and Nick and several more. Not everybody is okay with interracial couples, but as it becomes more prominent in society, children are growing up seeing that it is nothing different than any other couple. My grandfather would not condone an interracial relationship in our family, my parents are not huge advocates of interracial couples and I, personally, have no opinion on the topic because it does not make a difference to me. What I am trying to say is that the years go on, people are becoming more comfortable with interracial relationships. The site, Interracial Intimacy, also comments on the topic. One of the opening sentences claims that racial purists refer to interracial couples as "mongrelization", which is sick. Different ethnic groups loving each other and having children is beautiful, not 'mongrelization. 

        College students in today's world are very comfortable with the idea of interracial couples, multiracial individuals and biracial individuals. Yet many multiracial/biracial people, including President Obama, on paperwork such as the census, only check one race or another. Many do not choose all races that actually apply to them. Why is this? Why do they feel that they must choose one of the other? If they fit into both categories, why not choose both? If our society is becoming so accustomed to the idea of biracial and multiracial individuals, what is the reasoning behind not checking all the boxes one relates to. 

       Ethnicity has created many uproars in our history, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., slave trade etc.. Recently, the uproars have almost completely depleted. Interracial couples are becoming less surprising as the years go on. I believe that people should love whoever they want without the pressures of society guiding them away from certain people. There are even television shows, like "90 Day Fiance", where the media portrays interracial couples. Our society has become much more accepting of interracial couples and biracial/multiracial individuals. So I ask you again, how do you identify yourself?