I found this week’s readings more difficult to relate to, particularly because I’m not Dominican and haven’t been a victim of racism, but some parts of “Black Behind the Ears” — and Up Front Too? Dominicans in The Black Mosaic by Ginetta E.B. Candelario intrigued me.

The problem of identity that’s noted throughout the article is mostly due to stereotypes and racial backgrounds that are recognized in the United States. In the U.S., people are seen as white, black, or somewhere in between (people of color who are neither completely white nor black). However, these categories of race are not completely accurate either, because the first impression of someone’s race is built on their physical appearance (phenotype), rather than their family’s background that’s traced back for generations (genotype).

Sofia Mora’s anecdote in Black Mosaic is a perfect example of how people are perceived differently in the United States than in other countries. Mora describes how in the United States, there is less of a population that would be considered Dominican Republic, while in the Caribbean and in the Dominican Republic, there have been a lot of people of color along with lighter skinned people who have been living there for years. Thus, identity and self identification problems in the United States are largely due to people being labeled under specific categories, since there are a lot of races represented in the country, but less of certain races.

Another excerpt from Mora’s anecdote echoed similarities between my own identity and the identity of Dominicans.

[If I am] asked where I came from, I will say I’m Dominican. But that’s a nationality. It’s not a race. If they want to know where I’m coming from in terms of race, then I am of African descent.

My own identity would be the same as this. Mora prefers being identified as Dominican (a nationality rather than a race). I also prefer being identified as my nationality (American) rather than my race (Chinese/Asian). I’m extremely uncultured and have never really liked Chinese culture/tradition, mostly due to the fact that I was born in the United States. I can’t write in Chinese and I can barely speak Chinese (Cantonese in particular). I’m not ashamed of this and rarely think about this as an identity “problem,” but it does make me wonder if not caring enough about Chinese culture and traditional values is a bad thing.

In addition, I was surprised by Ramberto’s anecdote about speaking Spanish in order to avoid being identified as black. This “foreigners’ exemption” worked in her mom’s favor, but it highlights the misconceptions of phenotype vs. genotype for racial backgrounds. Moreover, growing up by being taught that you must speak Spanish in order to “play the game” right isn’t the best upbringing, and only shows the difficulties that people of color had to go through to be fed.