My Racial Testimony

For my intergroup dialouge class I had to write a testimony about race &ethnicity. This is what I had to say.



I am a Hispanic woman. Some call me Latina or Spanish which is fine too. To my understanding I belong to a group of people whose ancestors came from Africa & Europe and spoke Spanish. We have varying skin tones from pale white to the blue black that is my grandfather. Our hair isn’t straight and often frizz is every Latin woman’s complaint. We are a strong hardworking laborious people, our ancestors once farmers and possibly slaves. This is who I am and these are the people I come from.



With race, I have experienced stereotypes or been thrown in certain stereotypes like being loud and talking fast. I have often felt like an outsider when I'm the "minority" in the situation, but I have always been the majority. Coming from a low income neighborhood in the South Bronx, everyone that surrounded me was just like me. We were poor, we were fatherless, drugs were as common as the pigeons flying overhead, people went to jail, they returned, they left again, and that’s how it went. We yelled at each other from across the street, talked fast, grew up faster. We tried to keep up with the urban fashions so we wouldn’t be considered losers. We were stuck in the “hood” and school was our only way out. Spanish or Black we were minorities and were taught the white man rules corporate America, and if we study hard enough and apply ourselves, one day we could be in corporate America too. We could escape the ghetto, we could be like them, but not many of us have left. The children I grew up with have become the drug dealers I observed, the young mothers I pitied, and the cycle continues. I refused to stay. This affects me today because I am constantly on a journey out and away from where I came from. Not forgetting where I came from but knowing that there is better out there. Pride is the main emotion I feel when I think about what influenced my race and ethnicity over time, because although I knew I was a minority somewhere in the world, growing up, I was raised a queen. No one was better, or more beautiful, or more eloquent than I was. As I think back to the streets I came from and how I was able to break the cycle I am proud. Proud of my studies, my work ethic, my drive, all instilled in me by my culture, my race, my Spanish blood. This identity allows me to see the world as opportunity, as a place to thrive and improve. The biggest shock has been college and how I am viewed. I am no longer seen as the queen I was raised to be, here sometimes I feel invisible, invisible to every race including my own. Being Hispanic, I feel like I always have to prove that I'm not "ghetto" or "hood" and often try to be as educated and proper as I can. Sometimes it is annoying to not be able to fully be myself, and have to avoid being categorized and stereotyped. I never want to be judged for where I am from, but at times it seems impossible. Sometimes I don't think it is so much my ethnicity or race that makes me feel this way, but the stereotypes that have been assigned to it and the disadvantages that sometimes come with the label “minority.”



Gender is another identity that is important in the way I see myself. As a woman, you must always be a lady, act a certain way, be responsible for certain things. But what if I don’t want to? What if I hate to shave? What if I rather sit with my legs open and burp in public? What if I don’t want children? Why can’t I have those options, without being judged? Being a woman affects me as a person today because I must always follow a certain guideline on how to be. This annoys me as I think about how the media and just general tradition has translated an image of what a woman is supposed to be over generations and generations. There will always be these fundamental principles that make up a female, these labels of mother, caretaker, cook, maid, companion, and submissive that are applied. I don’t believe we should have to worry about what we wear, and how we look, and how we act simply because of our gender. My home is full of women who proudly wear some of these labels and dismiss others all at the same time. I have been accustomed to never settling no matter what social identity I’m a part of.