Blog #5

For my final blog post, I decided to sit down and really think about what I have learned during these past couple weeks and how it has shaped my family to what they are today. Granted, I have taken numerous Ethnic and Culture classes as requirements for my major but, after putting all these classes together and re-examining everything that I have learned, I realized it definitely was not easy to get where we are today. The past readings and stories that we have looked at proved the struggles and hardships many of these individuals had to go through. Whether someone was coming to America as a slave to just moving away from their country because of the political and economic hardships, America was the one place all these cultures came together and clashed. We built an empire on what each culture brought to the table and even after all these years we have changed and acknowledge parts of other cultures into our own. Not only that, but I have never been exposed to the different kinds of racism that are out there and after re-reading these articles and taking the time to apply them to my daily life, it honestly blew me away to know how there are various approaches to crossing that line.

After I had done the interviews for my family history, it took me a moment to process everything just because my grandmother's words were still ringing in my head. She is a very conservative woman who has fought greatly to get the status she is today. She has sacrificed education in her early 20s just so she could marry my grandfather and have a family. My grandmother (who we call Nani by the way) strongly believes that my siblings and I have to marry a white, Jewish boy and well, for the guys in my family a white, Jewish girl. But, clearly my generation and my grandmother's have different views. I, for one, am not dating a Jewish boy but a catholic one while my sister is dating an African-American. We are the time when the thought of looking for a Jewish boy to marry is not a priority unlike my grandmother who was married at the age of eighteen. Clearly, times are changing and so are the privileges that we inherit.

I am a white female who does receive a lot of advantages because of my skin and gender but, at the same time I also experience the disadvantages. In fact, I have read the "White Privilege" article in my last class and every time I read it, it amazes me some more because when I take the time to truly think about the privileges I have, I never realize how much I take it for granted. There are sometimes when I do use my skin color to my advantage which I know is wrong to say but, sometimes we do it without realizing it. Many of us never really stop to think how this would be if maybe we were a different race or culture and how tough it could honestly be. I am also a female which tends to become a little frustrating just because society still has not come to the idea that females could posses higher position than males. I know I am stepping into dangerous territory because there are many males in the class in general who will most likely disagree with me when I say that in the long run, males will never truly be able to give up their "standing" in society to a woman. We have been raised to know that the male will always take care of the woman because he is stronger than she is. But, now that times are changing and women want to have the same opportunity as males, it is becoming more difficult. Females are now having to pick whether or not they want to raise a family and sacrifice their job or progress far in their career and sacrifice their family. Or, could it be simply that males are a little intimated at the thought of a woman dominating them? Since the very start of time it has always been the male in charge so what if this new possibility is making some males feel less masculine regarding their positions? Either way, being a female does have its advantages and disadvantages. In fact, because we are female some of us are able to get away with certain things while at the same time, many of us are often viewed as "weak" therefore we do not get the same respect as we do if we were a male. Just looking at history it took women years to even get the right to vote which is something that everyone should be able to do. I could honestly get into a whole post just about being a female but I know I need to move on and discuss more about my religion and the privileges I received from my family history.

My family is quite wealthy because of my great great great grandparents. Moving here was a dream to them and yes, they did start out with minimum waged jobs but they put their heart and soul into everything and eventually they had their own companies. Because of the success my family has, we were able to move to a wealthy neighborhood in Ohio and attend one of the top schools. I live in a prominently white Jewish neighborhood but, at the same time my school is starting to change. Over the past couple years many more African Americans, Asians and Arabs have moved to the area. It is not uncommon to have many friends from different cultures at my school. In fact, my best friends were all a different race but we enjoyed each other for who we are and the fact that we looked different never seemed to cross our minds. But, because of my race, gender and the economic status my family has given to me, I was able to get the best education I could receive and had enough money to go to an University. In my High School, if you did not graduate and attend college you were looked down upon. My High School strived and even acknowledged all the students who were attending college by having them stand up during graduation while those we were not were forced to sit in the back. Attending Bowling Green was very different for me because first off, there are not many Jewish individuals and secondly, there is a heavy population of races that my High School really never got close to. I was being open to a world that I have yet to see outside of the "bubble" my High School put me in.

Overall, after reviewing these past readings I now have a better understanding of where each culture is coming from and how difficult it truly was to get where they are today. We still live in a world where racism (despite which form) is still heavily present. Many, as stated in "Internalized Racism" feel as though they are not welcomed in society because of their race and because of me being white, I have never honestly felt anything similar to that so just to imagine the mental suffering an individual can receive from that is terrifying. To be honest, we can not judge someone just by their physical appearance because we do not know their story let alone their roots so what right is it for us to judge and jump to conclusions? My grandmother definitely is one to do that and I feel if maybe she had learned everything I have about the different cultures maybe she would have a different opinion as well. Maybe she would welcome people of different cultures with open arms rather than making comments that are rude and disrespectful. But, even if she does not change her views, I know what is right and I now know how to better respect and understand what each culture has brought to America. We are all Americans despite where we have lived and maybe one day America will finally become the "melting pot" it has so graciously bragged about before.