The written “capstone” assignment for this module is not exactly a summary of an article. In fact, you will not need to find an article at all to complete it. Rather, in this assignment I want students to produce a roughly 250-300 word (1-1.5 pages of double-spaced text) document where you reflect on and describe you own “ethnic or racial identity” or heritage.
This short written assignment can be approached in multiple ways. For example, when I was growing up my family told me that we were “American” obviously, but of Swedish and Dutch heritage. So, when people asked me my “ethnicity” or “ancestry” I would answer with Swedish and Dutch, even though I’ve never been to Sweden or the Netherlands and knew probably nothing about either place at the time. If you have a similar experience to mine you could write about that. People who are descendants of most recent immigrants to the United States (say from Mexico or India) probably have similar experiences, but because they are first generation, their notions of ethnic identity are likely much more vivid and powerful.
Racial identity (for non-whites) is more visible and that introduces another layer of complexity to the matter.
Questions that you could raise/explore in your short essay include, but are not limited to the following —
1. To what extent is your “ethnicity” or “racial identity” invisible or visible to others? Does that matter?
2. To what extent is your “ethnicity” or “racial identity” voluntary? Meaning, you celebrate it when you want (say at an ethnic festival) and it’s not a label that is imposed by society.
3. To what extent is your “ethnic identity” not exactly correct? For example, I have a friend who is only 1/4 Italian, but for him he is a proud 100% Italian-American, as if he were a first-generation American whose parents were born in Italy. The reality is that most of us are ethnically-mixed, but we choose that one part of our ethnic background that we like and turn that into a central part of our identity.
You may go in other directions of course. And, it would also be fine if you just richly-described your own understanding of your ethnic background. Give it some thought, jot down some notes and an outline and start writing. If you have any questions at all, please post them to the “open discussions” forum
to answer the questions that I could write about to extend your racial identity visible to others as I often tend to get asked if I’m Irish because I am pale skinned with freckles and red hair number two question festivals basics the traditional Christian holidays and kind of like to continue on with number three I am probably a forest Irish mostly German but people always assume I’m Irish due to my hair and skin
