A Personal View on Race, Class, Ethnicity and Gender

My Views and Beliefs of Race, Class, Ethnicity and Gender What are beliefs? One’s beliefs can be defined as your thoughts and values on how you live your life and your impressions and feelings about topics and situations. A belief is the acceptance of something as being truthful. By definition, it is the mental act, condition, or habit of placing confidence or trust in a person or thing. Beliefs can also be thought of in a religious setting, depending upon how your might have been raised by your family. My beliefs are my anchor and are connected to the way I think, act and respond to various situations. The development of beliefs comes from many experiences and influences starting at birth. Influences of family, physical appearances, cultural background, the people that you interact with as well as other outside experiences play a major role on how your beliefs are formed. Race is defined as a group of people classified together on a basis of common history, nationality or distinguishing characteristics such as a physical appearance like eye color or skin color. Race also can refer to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits classified by society to be socially significant -meaning that people treat other people differently because of them. False beliefs about the origins of races have led to widespread problems worldwide. The term racism is when one group of people feel that they are superior over another group of people. I feel (my belief) racism is mainly due to ignorance or maybe fear. It is difficult to change people’s ingrained opinions. Individuals may not have had experiences that have allowed them to work with people with many different characteristics- or they may have had a bad experience with a particular race that has caused their belief to be limited. I have lived in Bennington for most of my life. There is minimal variation of race here. Yet, I feel that my experiences with traveling with my family or through high school trips to third world countries, I have developed a larger view that living in an area with varied race populations is good. I also believe that if young children were educated on the acceptance of varied race populations at an early age through television, media, school and community experiences, racism could be decreased dramatically. An example of educating our students might be to review and revise the textbooks used in our schools so that the books would report a broader perspective on our history and then we could have an impact in changing our perspectives on race. Class is defined as a group of people that share the same economic or social status. An example of this would be a group of people called “the working class”; those who work hard for earning money and living off what they earn. The “rich” or the “poor” can also be referred to a class and each one of these has a personal image. I have grown up in a two working parent family. My parents have successful careers. I did not ever feel I was in need of something that I couldn’t have. I was lucky. Yet, often I was stereotyped into a category that since my parents have successful careers, that they would just hand me money. I was constantly asked if I had to work for my own money or if my parents gave it to me freely. Believe it or not, education on hard work and earning your own way has been part of my life. Again, I was lucky. However, it wasn’t until I visited Nicaragua and I met many children who did not have even one pair of shoes, that I felt I wanted to volunteer more places and offer more of my things or myself once back home. Ethnicity refers to shared cultural practices, perspectives and distinctions that set people apart from one group to another. Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage or your ancestry. Multicultural and multiethnic or mixed race people are