7. How does race help define who you are? Culture? American Society?

Welcome to Fluther. We don’t really do homework here. The idea is for you to think and thus learn.

My suggestion is as a starting point to think about your own race. What does it mean to who you are? To you? To how others perceive you?

Do you associate certain traits with certain races? If so, why?

Think about that, and then start writing!

@shamallama Welcome to Fluther.

as @Marina says, many flutherites feel that it is not a good idea to ask the collective to do your homework for you.

That being said, I think it is valid to come to Fluther to discuss the question and get some ideas.

What is race? Genes? Color of skin? Way of speaking? Food preferences?

How do you assign someone to a race? Where do you draw the line with respect to skin color, so this shade is one race, and that shade, right next to it, is another?

What assumptions do you make when you see someone of a different race? What assumptions do you think other people make? What are the stereotypes? What is racial discrimination? Have you ever experienced racial discrimination or discrimination of any kind?

Do you want race to define who you are? Does anyone?

Answer those questions, and you’ll be able to do your homework.

@Marina I agree, the question. Shamallama your teacher is basically asking what is difference about your race compared to others? Were you raised with traditions from other cultures? Compared to people with the same race? It’s a question that you need to sit down a think about, ask your family questions, get their take on their take on it.

like i told marina i have thought about this topic for a while now and i cant put it into words for my teacher cuz i dnt really think there are races just that everyone comes from diferent places with different skin tones but that we’re all the same. the only diference betweens us is our cultures and ways of living

@shamallama: That sounds like a pretty good start to me! Maybe you could flesh it out with some examples to support what you’re saying?

@nikipedia That’s just what I told @shamallama!

Great minds… ;)

I’m not American. But I am generally a product of the Western way of life: I eat fast food, wear jeans, listen to rock music. I have been educated in the western way, speak English as my first language, was brought up a Christian (though not a particularly devout one). I grew up in an environment that had electricity, capitalism, cities and streets, pollution, freedom of speech (too much sometimes) and a culture of smoking and drinking a lot (but no drugs).

All of these things for me are “normal” and I don’t stop to think of them.

They only become important when I imagine how I could be different if I had been born somewhere else. If my first language had been Arabic, and I had to learn to write from left to right. If I were a woman in Afghanistan, and was not allowed to go to school. If I grew up like my father did, in a small village without electricity (and therefore without TV, radio, and later on computers). If I’d been born in Eastern Europe or some other Communist country like many of the people my age. If I had been born in the middle of the Sahara, or even Arizona. Or to a family of Mormons, or on the contrary, weed-smoking hippies (as I’m sure a lot of you here have).

However much we want to believe that we make our own choices, usually the list is pretty small and pre-determined, both by our genes and by our environment.

You may wish to think carefully about the indisputable fact that genetically there are no races among humans. Not even a little bit. There are cultural differences, and people vary in appearance, but that’s about it.