As a 12 year old, I had encountered in many times where people say very messed up things including something racist. Since I’m a brother of younger sisters including my older sister, I also have my own responsibility to teach my siblings about the things happening in the world like terrorism, pollution and other stuff like that. Me personally, I don’t really like talking about this type of stuff, because I might offend someone and sometimes I might think what I’m gonna say but put it in the wrong way where i may sound very messed up. The Name of this story has to do with a experience I had encountered in 3rd grade in Explorer Elementary. When I was in 3rd grade I did not really get racism but I knew it was bad, A partner and I had to do a project about what are you and where you are from. I searched the Philippines with my partner and images popped up of Filipinos. My partner was insulting the way they looked and I remember exactly what he said, “You Filipinos really do look ugly!” When I get insulted I didn’t want to say anything because I knew that if did, it would gotten even more messed up and I didn’t want to get in trouble. Now that I know more about racism I wish I would have said something. In 7th grade we learned about events in history about racism, Some of the really cool things we got to learn about was the Holocaust because i’ve all ways wanted learn what caused it and now know that it was about racism. It was really depressing learning about the holocaust because so many people died at that time. The teachers are not making us learn this because they want us to feel depressed, they are teaching us about our history.
Race is a Social Construct
Race is not biological. It is a social construct. There is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites. According to Angela Onwuachi-Willig, “Were race “real” in the genetic sense, racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries. Yet, a person who could be categorized as black in the United States might be considered white in Brazil or colored in South Africa. Unlike race and racial identity, the social, political and economic meanings of race, or rather belonging to particular racial groups, have not been fluid. like race, racial identity can be fluid. How one perceives her/him racial identity can shift with experience and time, and not simply for those who are multiracial. These shifts in racial identity can end in categories that our society, which insists on the rigidity of race, has not even yet defined.” This means that society has categorized “races” or “skin color” to their own personal experiences. Society categorizes people in groups but it isn’t all the same. Although race exists in our world, its just created by social constructs.
