REFLECTION 10

I enjoyed reading the article ” Too Latina To Be Black, Too Black To Be Latina” by Aleichia Williams. She was a young lady who came from a Hispanic family and her skin color tends to be a little darker than what normally Latinas look like. New York is a very big city where people from different countries live and engage so her moving to Northalina was a big step in her life. I live in New York and I agree with the fact that no one will question your skin or race in this city. People in North Carolina automatically started to put her in the “black category” since her skin is dark. That’s exactly what happened to her in the class until her classmates realized that she is fluent in Spanish. This only explains how much capital is taking over our country, but her strong personality is very inspiring in the way she embraces her differences. For William, being black is very normal as if you are white. It had nothing to do with identity and should not be a reason for violence, especially in schools. She was very courageous and she stand for herself for not being in one particular category.

The chapter “The Power Of Identity Politics” talks about how identity politics is being misunderstood and in order to do so, we must reconnect it to power. Alicia Garza defined power in her book as the ability to make strong decisions that can positively affect our lives and others. She also defined identity politics as it is a way of describing what is existing outside of what’s being normal in the united states. It is very common and true that America is very influenced by the politics of the whites and their privilege. African people are always feeling less valued in this country and that’s because whites are getting more rights and attention. I liked when she said”The more people you can get to invest in that story, the more powerful you become”.