Race in America

I read a speech that a 16 year old girl said after seeing “Black in America” her speech was called I am neither black nor white. I’m both. The girl Grace Gibson talks about being biracial in America. She felt that her group was underrepresented in the segment and she gave her take on being mixed. In her speech she says “I am proud to be a child born to two loving, talented, creative people – a mother and father who happened to be of African-American and English descent, respectively. I do not feel confused at all nor do I have an identity crisis. I do not feel lost in society nor rejected by any race because I am all races in one.” This stood out to me a lot. She is so positive about her race even though she doesn’t mention some of the hard ships that come with it. I think it is very inspiring that she is only 16 and is so comfortable with herself and who she is. She truly knows what is important in life and that having parents that love you and being healthy are some of the most important things. She felt that “Black in America” focused so much on the negatives of being biracial but there is nothing wrong with it at all. She talked about how inspiring it is to be biracial because you are a mix of everyone. Grace talks about how inspired she is by Barack Obama for being biracial and starting the change revolution where she thinks people are not only looked at based upon the color of their skin.

I read the article “Call My Name adds color to the AIDS quilt” I was drawn to this article because the AIDS quit has visited our school before and I remember seeing and being touched by it. The first sentence in the article reads, “Since the epidemic began, about 42 percent of those diagnosed with AIDS in the United States have been black, but, according to the quilt's curator, fewer than 400 of 47,000 quilt panels honor African-Americans.” This is was really upsetting to me. Almost half of the people diagnosed with AIDS are black yet they barely even make up a significant amount of those being honored in the AIDS quilt. It is very sad that we can find a way to remember the lives of white people who have lost their lives yet we give so little room for blacks to do the same. The article goes on to talks about a new project called Call My Name where they are going around getting more quilts made to remember African-Americans. I think it is a great thing that they are doing. Realizing inequalities and working to fix them is a huge step in trying to make things more equal for everyone. Although I think that this racism is unintentional I still think it is a problem that needs to be addressed, and it is great that they are working towards that goal. A volunteer working with the Call My Name project said a quote that really stuck out to me, "Sometimes people relate the panel to death -- in actuality they are making awareness of people's life." I think that this project is a great way to, not only see the impact the disease has had, but to remember how great the lives were that were lost. It is to remember that they are people too and something needs to be done to stop this disease in the future.

The first quote on the Exploring Race website says “In Lake County, Ind., the minority population grew from 43 percent in 1990 to 53 percent in 2008 as the number of white children declined, the number of blacks stayed stable and the number of Hispanics increased. There are similar patterns across the country, which leads demographers to believe that whites will be in the minority by the middle of the century.” This really stuck out to me because it related to the articles we read in class that said when a certain population that wasn’t diverse starts to become so then the whites move away. I didn’t really believe this when I read it is class and I was shocked to see that there are facts that it is happening within our on community. I think that diversity is a goal we should aim to reach and that the more integration we have the more everyone can learn from each other. I think it is sad that even in Lake County people are against integration and willing to move away from it. The article did go on to explain that, “more Hispanic women of prime childbearing age tend to have more children than women of other races.” After reading that, it is hard to tell whether the article we read in class is correct that people move away from diversity or if the idea that minorities have more children is actually the reason for this. I think that it most likely is a mix between the two and both opinions are right they just result in the same change of statistics.