Analysis Of Kwame Anthony Appiah Racial Identities

To many people across a variety of different nationalities and cultures, race has been proven to be a key factor for how society views you in the eyes of those who are prominently in charge. The term race has been brought up in recent years, to be considered a form of identification, as the word race is used to describe physical characteristics such as a person’s color of skin, hair, and eyes. When in reality, the correct term they should be using is Ethnicity. As a result, the term race is used to separate people into sub-categories based on the color of their skin. This type of classification, is a man-made creation used by society to classify certain groups of people into lower classes, while keeping the predominate group in charge at the top.

Throughout the essay, Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections, I found Kwame Anthony Appiah’s claims about social scripts to support my idea that we present ourselves differently depending on the circumstance. There are times when we try to play into the majority, as well as times where we try and fall into the minority; we choose which group we want to highlight depending on which will get us where we want to go.

What if we lived in a world where there were no races? What if people were not discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because they are different from what we see as acceptable? This is what Kwame Anthony Appiah tries to examine in his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Appiah tries to point out that “American social distinctions cannot be understood in terms of the concept of race.” (102) That America is made up of so many different races that no race is the more superior or in other cases inferior to one another. America is defined by its cultural diversity; it is what makes America the nation that it is. It is the reason that we as Americans have freedoms other people

Although, every marginalized population has the potential to be denied access to opportunities, there are some groups likely to experience deprivation solely based on color. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) states,

Defining someone by their skin color is an everyday phenomenon. Many people see a specific shade of skin and believe they know exactly how that person is going to speak, carry, and illustrate themselves. It seems to be embedded in one’s head at a young age to have specific views given by family, friends, and coworkers such as, believing interracial relationships are immoral, or it being acceptable to judge others according to their skin color. In the articles “Race is a Four Letter Word” by Teja Arboleda and “Mr. Z” by M. Carl Holman, the color of the authors skin plays a substantial role on how they are treated and perceived. Living in a society that doesn’t understand one’s culture can make their life extremely difficult.

Tressie McMillan Cottom, the author of “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” writes about her life experiences and the inequality that she was able to overcome because of the example of her mother and how she was able to obtain access to opportunities that would otherwise be not available to her. Her argument in her article is that how an individual will dress and act makes a difference in what opportunities he or she will be offered. Although everyone would agree that they would hire the best looking person for a job to represent their company, she only declares about the black community. The author of this article, Ms.Cottom has many fatal errors that make her argument invalid and occasionally contradicting herself. In theory, this article was supposed to explain that poor people buy luxury items to fit in, but on the contrary, next she states that this still may not work if the individual happens to be black. In reality, this article is not about being poor; this article is about being discriminated for being black.

I totally agree with the assertion of A. Blemenfeld that those identification aspects that capture my attention are the targets of others people’s attention that is reflected back to me (Blumenfeld, 2010). Even though, I was always open-minded and had a friendly relationship with almost anybody, I felt that my racial identity was a part of a problem. As I was the only student of color, I felt alienated sometimes.

Stephanie Mencimer states in her article, “What if Everything You Knew About Race Was Wrong?”, that poverty has had a deep and negative

While reading “Racial Identities”, the author, Kwame Anthony Appiah, finds himself within the different ways of speaking and thinking. Appiah writes as a philosopher meaning that he writes from within ideas, specifically, from within strings of thought. Even though it does not look like he is very supportive of those thoughts, he is just portraying them to everyone. He is trying to experiment with the consequences and limits to show where they would lead to.

Race and ethnicity play a pivotal role in our lives, informing how we see ourselves and

In “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, the discourse is a discussion of the issues with the struggle and fight for black liberation. While Blacks may be making superficial strides and gains, such as an African-American President, the continued struggle to end discrimination in fields of housing, education, employment, and policing is still at the forefront of Black everyday life. One theme Taylor discusses is the issue posed by “allies” who in actuality, are working against the struggle. She describes racism as being broken down into three molds: biologically, color blindness, and the culture of poverty. Racists use biology to say that certain races are “naturally” superior to others. There is a misguided

Author and poet C. Joy Bell C. once stated, “We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colors and all cultures are distinct and individual (C. Joy Bell C.).” Although this quote is the ideal perspective of race relations it is not the reality. Race and ethnic identity exert an immense amount of influence on personal perception and opinion of race relations. Race and ethnic identity influence the networks and social groups people build for themselves. Social groups consist of two or more people with common identities, regular interaction, and mutual expectation. In society “common identity” often means common race or ethnicity. Primary social groups are characterized by frequent interaction, strong emotional ties and enduring relationships (Barkan 2014). The findings of the analysis of Person A and Person B are primary social groups including white Americans, reinforce white hegemony and symbolic violence. Even in the case that a primary group is diverse, white social norms

A person’s identity may be determined by him/her family background and this is proven evident in the essay “Private and Public Language” by Rodriguez. We live in a world in which identities are determined prematurely without hesitation. This means that even without getting to know an individuals personality the first thing that is done instead is determining identities based on your physical state, family, or family background. As a culture we live in a diverse environment in which the majority of people come from a different place, and as a result many are identified differently depending on where he/she and their family are from. Today’s culture is more diverse than ever, and more and more people are migrating to different countries and settling so I feel like it

Sorry so long, a very complex study I simply despise its existence. My explanation of racial smog is deficiency of knowledge and gossip. It has simply taken out context to suit an individual’s perspective in regards strictly to color, and passed down with the same shortage of comprehension to future generations. People only see race in the color aspect such as white, black, brown, and green. They have chosen not to further the definition, but only to remain one sided. This can be due to many reasons in their upbringing, where they live, work, social status, and in their academics. People have understood and have been educated that black is black and white is white, there is no in between,

Yet, the most significant flaw in this essay can be seen through the author’s simplistic view of the scope of racial injustice. Remarkably, the author only refers to white privilege in terms of its impact on what she calls “the problems facing Black America.” She fails to acknowledge or perhaps has no insight that white privilege involves the preference for ‘whiteness’ over all persons of color. Every non-white group is impacted by individual and institutional racism. Every non-white group grows up with the knowledge that their white peers have certain automatic privileges. Every child of color has to learn to navigate through the floodwaters of racism