Andy Macedo Professor SueSOCY 102110/30/2013Reflection PaperGrasping the different aspects of human identity with regards to ones race and/or ethnicity is a topic that is incredibly important to all races of people regardless of economic class or societal expectations. It is quite impossible to go throughout life without forming an idea of who you are or where you have come from. Whether you careto make it a part of your daily life, have no choice or acknowledge it when it is convenient; without that knowledge I find it difficult to fully make the most of life. Through the reading from the semester and class discussions I have come to the conclusion that White ethnics choose to either assert their ethnicities thickly or thinly, or they choose to incorporate it into their lives symbolically. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and other ethnicities all differentiate in a negative connotation because of an underlying issue with racial and ethic construction. The issue is that it is born of social construction-what others believe of your race to be true. Race and ethnicity are constructed in and by society, and there are many environmental and socio-economic factors (Sue lecture). This can make the racial identityconstruction process much more difficult depending upon your racial or ethnic background. Luckily, I grew up in an environment where my parents and peers let my racial identity grow with no major pressures or limitations, and I’m very thankful for that.Growing up as a white kid in a suburban, mostly white neighborhood, I feel that I had asort of racial invisibility. There were times where I was confused as a kid as to why my parents sent me to a Presbyterian private middle school instead of the more diverse, city public school more inland, but I never truly thought about or analyzed my parent’s motives until now. But I believe the amount of emphasis placed on the value of ethnic identity among Whites is not the same as it has been in times past; the emphasis has now been placed on American culture and what is considered valuable. I believe my family is a very much a part of the third generation white ethnic, where we have fully assimilated into American culture and have little interest in our ethnicity because by now, we have figured out that in being a white ethnic, we fit into our culture and ethnicity isn’t truly necessary. The ideology of colorblindness really never influenced my view on race at all, because I was taught from a young age that race does exist and that every ethnicity has different struggles and discriminations that we need to be aware of. But I believe that in growing up, I was indirectly shown that my ethnicity isn’t necessarily a delay or problem to my economic, intellectual or social success, and that it’s not a part of us (whites) that we feel needs to be asserted in everyday life. But I also quickly learned it was much different for other ethnicities in school and social life, and that I needed to be aware and act accordingly if a situation arises. I first thought of myself in racial terms circa 7th or 8th grade, after I started playingsoccer at a higher level. I started playing with many Latinos, and really started to see the verbal attacks and discriminations that were spit back and forth between them and non-Latinos. But it was more then just playing soccer with them. I ate dinners with them, joked with them, picked them up from their homes, and built strong relationships with many of them on my team. I came to know Latino families much like Curtis Linton did in2his racial autobiography. He writes, “Every member of the Latino family was humble, kind, disciplined, and hard working,” (Linton 82). I learned Latinos are very hard workers, on and off the field, but I could never understand until now that they were a trueproduct of the myth of ethnic success we’ve learned in lecture. Steinberg calls it a myth because it says that working hard is the only factor in achieving the American Dream, butthe concept is completely disregarding the still unequal opportunities and discrimination that society has built about certain ethnicities (Sue lecture). With the memory of my Latino teammates, I now realize the massive difference in the construction of their racial identities and how they had such a harder time assimilating into the American culture then I did. In relation to the Color of Fear video, the Latino Roberto quotes, “Becoming American means letting go of the other part of you.” This directly portrays Roberto’s struggle of assimilating to the American culture and letting go of his Latino values and ethics, something I could never truly relate to. As I grew older, I became more and more aware of their sense of pride in their ethnicity compared to mine, and it was a major factor in shaping how I think of racial identity. I learned that shaping a positive identity of any kind is difficult, but to shape a positive Latino identity in America holds a certain amount of extra weight to it. Latinos (and many other ethnicities) struggle in trying to advance themselves because of the constant racial stereotypes reverberating in the background of society. I started to see this the more I was surrounded by them throughout high school. They were thickly asserted with their ethnicity, and chose to incorporate it in their everyday lives with each other. I felt like it solidified a bond between them, making them play even better when it came to soccer.3I was very flexible with my racial identity as a teen, and most of the discriminations I experienced in my social life were played off as joke or a tease among friends. Growing up as a kid, the main influences that shaped my views on other races were TV shows and social media combined with my friends and their thoughts about them. I had Black, Latino, and Asian friends all throughout middle and high school, and I never treated them differently or portrayed white racial resentment –when Whites don’t acknowledge that they’re privileged and believe there are no racial blockades (Sue lecture). I was just brought up and taught that way. Although with living in L.A, there were certain instances where when we got in fights at parties with strangers from different ethnic groups, and there were real verbal discriminations that would escalate thefight ten folds. This definitely influenced various aspects of my life considering my race. I have been in several fights, and have witnessed many more, but I think