Edison LaCour,
Orange County, CA.

I am a product of a biracial marriage, or now with my newfound knowledge from my Biological Anthropology class, a multiethnic marriage. While race is a social construct, this has not stopped me from feeling it’s effects from society. Biologically, it is said that behavior is influenced by mostly by biological factors innate to that person through their DNA. However, I feel like sometimes society can have a large effect on a person. In my case, I physiologically display African-American and Hispanic qualities. However, growing up in primarily the predominantly white suburbs of San Diego and Orange County, I believe I grew up to be a product of my environment, reflecting my surroundings. So I believe that people have stereotyped me based on my physiological ethnic characteristics and have treated me with prejudice because I don’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of the suburbs or the private catholic school I attended. On the flip side of that, people question my biological ethnic heritage by saying I’m not black because I act white or that I “don’t act black enough.” I have embraced my ethnic identity as a man of Creole (African-American and French), Mexican, Irish, and other European descendants and learned to brush off prejudices from anyone. I know what I am, and will stay true to myself as long as I live.