Diane Lee ~ ASA 115 ~ Week 5 Readings

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The readings for week five touched on mixed race empowerment and the expectations of those that are mixed race. This week’s readings connect to the theme: Traitors strike back, Venerations: Hybrid Vigor, Cultural Bridges, Golden People, Race Saviors, and Ideal Beauty because with the pressure to choose and prove one’s self to a community, mixed race traitors acknowledge that there is a hierarchy within the categorization. For me, I agree that mixed race individuals go through a process of figuring out where and how they can fit in. Plus, it is quite frustrating to know that according to others, mixed race people are supposed to meet their standards, in order, to be enough. However, being enough for others does not help someone’s personal growth; mixed race individuals should be enough for themselves. Likewise, the “Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage” by Maria PP Root is empowering to me. When I first read it, I felt like it was not right. But when I read the other readings, I realized that trying not to make others feel uncomfortable means that I am accepting how others determine my value. For a long time, I have put up with being uncomfortable, so why not take the power back? If “I have the right not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with my physical or ethnic ambiguity” (1), then I will be unapologetic. Why is similarity so important in cultures and when there is no similarity, why does someone have to meet such high expectations?