Aleichia Williams, talks about her experience on her first day of school and the years that follow that. She says that she came from North Carolina and it is a different environment than New York. On her first day she sat next to a group of girls that were hispanic and looked friendly. One of the girls that was in the group questioned her why she was sitting there, she did not want her to sit there. A friend of hers that had already had class with her corrected the girl and said she speaks spanish. She informs us that this was the first time she took her skin color into awareness. She grew up where her skin color wasn’t looked at because it was normal to be darkened skin and be spoken to in Spanish.
“My home language is Spanish so this must mean I eat tacos.” I relate to that quote from her. I am not too dark but also not too white, I have long black hair and speak Spanish. When people see me they automatically think I am Mexican. I correct them and inform them that my parents are from Ecuador. A response is followed by saying but it’s the same thing, you guys both eat tacos. Getting identified as a specific individual is something I get as well. It is not easy to be told that what you say you are is the same as what everyone thinks when you say your Latina comes to mind. Everyone has different cultures and types of foods that surround them. Mexican is not Hispanic.
Williams talks about being too Black or being too Latin. Having to fit in is not an easy task and can be challenging for some. Not fitting in is also acceptable, be happy with who you are. Williams says she is learning to embrace every aspect of who she is.
In The Power of Identity Politics it talks about what it is and how it was developed. The author talks about an incident that occurred to her at a bar. Where a white woman was talking to a white man about an Egyptian actor. The white man said that there should be more actors like him, she started to talk about how we are all humans and that it should not be pointed out that he is over color. She has power, she may not be aware of it but a white woman has power to speak her mind and use that to be heard that we are all humans, not balck or white.
Non white people don’t always see people like them in magazines, when it comes to makeup girls of color have difficulty finding their shade. Even bandages are a white tone. Not until recently a variety of shades of makeup has been created and colored people are in magazines. Body shapes were one type and if you did not have that type of body you were not perfect. Now all bodies are coming to be accepted, plus sizes, people with curves and that should be enforced. We all do not have one skin color and one shape of body.
