When talking to my parents about this assignment over dinner this evening I found out that I am German, English, and Austrian. I started to ask my parents about our ethnicity and whether it has had an effect on our family. Neither of them could come up with anything. I don't think my ethnicity has had much influence on who I am. My family was talking a lot about this over dinner and both of my parents said that our ancestors came over to America so long ago that they never knew much about them. I don't think they effected my life very much.
I think what has influence my life is my families values, my community, church, school, and the media. I think my families values has a lot to do with my own values today. The way I was raised influences the person I am and my own beliefs. My community has influenced my life because I see how society acts around me and as I grew up I started to act the same way. Church also has an influence on who I am. I grew up going to church and it showed me how to behave and treat others. School helped me to get ready for life, it socialized me. The media has also been a big part of who I am, from the music I listen to, to the movies and television I watch. I think at one point my ethnicity became less important to my ancestors as they became assimilated to American culture. Many things have influenced who I am, but my ethnicity isn't a big part of that.
I think most people are aware of my ethnic background by looking at me. I am a Caucasian with blonde hair, I think most people would assume I am from European dissent. I think this influences the way people communicate with me. It depends on what nationality that person is and the stereotypes they have with my ethnicity. Another Caucasian may treat me like they would any other Caucasian but someone of another ethnicity may treat me differently. Personally I have never noticed anyone that I didn't know being rude to me but someone may have been and I didn't notice.
I think there many things in life that shape all of us. Some people are shaped by their ethnicity and some are shaped by other things. My life was shaped by things such as my family, and the media. I think people communicate with others based on what has influenced them and any preconceived notions one may have about an ethnicity.
Have you ever been treated differently because of your ethnicity? Have you ever treated someone differently because of their ethnicity?
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I have been treated differently within my own family based upon my ethnicity. I have a very large extended family on my mothers side. They are all Italian, as am I. I do not speak Italian but many of my family assumes that I do. They will come up and speak to me in Italian thinking I have some idea what they are saying, but I really don't. Other than my family, I do not think that people treat me differently based upon my ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteI think when I was younger I probably treated some people different based upon their ethnicity due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with it. However, being older, I try to treat everyone in the same respectful way.
I have never noticed when someone treated me differently, though I'm sure it's happened. As far as treating someone differently because of their ethnicity, I would pay more attention to things to make sure they are comfortable. A person I knew from Romania was sometimes hard to understand because her accent was so strong, so often I would have to repeat what she said to clarify. She understood why and said she'd rather have me say "what?" and then understand as opposed to just agreeing and not participating in the discussion.
ReplyDeleteI personally try to keep an open mind as much as possible when it comes to looking at other people and ignore any cultural difference they may have. However there are almost always going to be different barriers they may put a strain on interactions between people of different ethnic backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have ever been treated differently because of my ethnicity. My ancestors are from Europe, and generally they are not looked down upon or even looked up to. They are just there. Most people don't really know what ethnicity I am and when they do find out, they just think it is normal. I would like to think that I have not treated people differently because of their ethnicity, but I know that is not true. It is impossible to have stereotypes about people and if an ethnicity you have a poor image of treats you poorly, it is hard not to think poorly about them. I don't think I have always looked at them that way because of their ethnicity, but also because of their behavior, but I know everyone at one point as stereotyped someone about some type of characteristic.
ReplyDeleteI think that ethnicity always has an impact on our relationships with others. However, this impact can be a positive impact if we approach these relationships with open and informed minds. I know of examples where I have been treated differently when in groups of predominantly differing ethnicity. For instance, I used to ride the bus to work from south Minneapolis to downtown, and many times I would be the only "white" person on the bus. I rarely felt as though this singled me out in any way, but there were few occasions when I would get looks that I could tell were nonverbal messages of distrust. I know that being "white" has become a symbol of tyranny and oppression, and I understand that my ethnicity carries with it a ton of baggage, but one of the drawbacks of history being primarily centered on white males is that there is a concrete record of all of the atrocities committed by white males.
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