Race and Ethnicity

Defining Race and Ethnicity

To me, ethnicity means your background, where you are from. There are so many different ethnicity’s in today’s society that if there were no buildings or street signs around and all you saw was people, you would not be able to tell where you were. Race is a little different. There are different race’s out there, but just because someone was born in America, does not mean that they are American. There are people that come to America from Mexico and have children. These children are not American by race but they are by ethnicity.

I believe that these two concepts are important in the United States, along with knowing them is equally important. There are so many issues regarding these two concepts these days. Mostly there are problems with gangs that are not interracial, people not hiring hard workers due to the color of their skin, certain races getting stopped at airports and searched since Sept 11. However, if everyone got along all the time and there were no problems between races, we would not be where we are today. If you look back in history, there were always issues with races. If there were not people like Rosa Parks, then we might still be segregated today. What’s more important to some is who would be able to win the Super Bowl if there were not black guys mixed with white guys stumbling down the field?

To me, color is just a color. Everyone is the same, therefore it really does not matter what race or ethnicity you are. If you are a good person I would most likely be able to have a conversation with you.