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Who gets to decide what race you are?
This is a weird question, I know. But, it's been bugging me for a couple of days.
I was always under the impression that people get to state on their own terms what race they are. And, I've always been under the impression that people are permitted by social culture in the U.S. to correct people who assume they are of one race, when in fact they are of another and identify themselves as another.
For example, while I have some Native American heritage in me I could choose to identify myself as Native American. But, since more of my heritage is made up of non-Native American genealogy, I choose to identify myself as Caucasian.
President Obama is biracial and he chooses to identify with his African American heritage.
On his voter registration forms, George Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic. He is biracial (his father is Caucasian and his mother is Peruvian) and he chooses to identify himself as Hispanic.
Why then, is it permissible for the media to make this about a white and black racial issue? If we want to say it's about race, then we need to say that it's a Hispanic and Black issue, if we're being honest and holding to the facts.
George Zimmerman should be permitted, as other Americans are, to identify himself as whatever race he wants and to correct those who incorrectly identify him as something he isn't.
This perspective, which has run rampant, that it's a white versus black thing, isn't true. It further points to me that the media reports things that drum up the most sensation regardless of the societal impact for better or worse.
I agree that there are racial tensions in our nation and there have been for so many decades. But why do we continue to permit the media to further open this divide between American peoples as they report on stories like this one and inaccurately portray one individual as he chooses not to be?
There's a lot of hurt and anger over this case. Rightfully so. But why can't the races, working together, do more of a "shame on the media stance" instead of a "shame on white versus black" stance? It seems to me that it's the media that needs discipline here too.
It's this type of stuff that injures our country!
Re: Who gets to decide what race you are?
These people are all Hispanic:
I think you are way oversimplifying it. Do you really think that if President Obama had "chosen" to identify as Caucasian he would have been able to do so? No...the world would still see him as a "black" man. People judge on the color of skin. They don't go around asking folks what their ancestry is and what they would like to be identified as.
That's the problem with judging someone based on looks and race. It's purely visual. You have no idea who that person is.
Zimmerman spotted a black man (he didn't know it was a boy) walking with a hoodie. And he judged him. He judged him as being suspicious when he doing nothing to warrant that judgement. It's that simple. It was about race. It may have been about gender as well. I can guarantee that Zimmerman wouldn't have called the cops on a white girl walking in the rain with her hoodie up.
Thank you Geraldo and missy. ML- Z wasn't biracial -- you are confusing race with ethnicity.
I agree with Missy that Z looked at T and saw a black man and immediately judged him. He may have fit the profile of the recent breakins and such but that doesn't matter. Z made a judgment about Trayvon based solely on his appearance not on his behavior.
I loved what Geraldo posted in a separate thread about self-segregation. Think of all the wonderful people you are not getting to know or meet if you immediately associate them with danger or bad things based solely on their race or ethnicity.
Seriously, THIS.
What you identify to be your race based on ancestry and culture is inconsequential in our country. What is going to impact you is the perceptions of others. Others get to decide what race you are. What race you actually are doesn't matter if people don't see you that way. Look like you're black, get treated like you're black, and I know a whole lot of biracial people that can attest to that.
The idea that the media made this about race is so completely ridiculous that I can't believe people are actually saying it out loud. Identifying Martin as a criminal is racial profiling, and is racist no matter who is identifying him that way. I can't believe anyone would question that. The racial component to this is self evident.
I think the real problem here is that people seem to think you have to be intentionally and horribly racist in order to engage is racist behaviors or have racist thoughts. People get so up in arms about it, trying to identify or categorize someone as a racist based on certain criteria. That's just silly. If that was how it worked, we wouldn't be dealing with these problems right now. Blatant racism is a whole hell of a lot less common than normal, everyday people, trying to be good and fair, engaging in behaviors that are racist.
I agree with all of this, especially with the bolded part.
For many many years African Americans were taught if you have one drop of black blood in you, you are black.
I come from a Heinz 57 background as my Mom would like to call us. So is DH, I am pregnant with our 2nd, first pregnancy second child. My five year old is Pureto Rican, Black, White, and Native American.
I personally think it is easier to identify based on what you look like.
DMoney will be a kickass big sister
Nail. Head.
yep!
I see nothing about this at whitehouse.gov. Could you be a bit more specific?
The US Census Bureau does not consider Hispanic to be a race.