Anthropology

Inayat Kaur
ANT 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
2nd Year (Finance)


The first time I filled out a form in the United States, I marked my race as Indian/Pacific Islander. I was lucky my sister checked that form before submitting it because my race is Asian. I thought I'm Indian because I'm from India. Little did I know, Indian means the Native Indians in America. But since India is in Asia, I guess it makes sense to call myself Asian.

What struck me about this chapter and it's discussion in class, is how not many people are satisfied with the racial categories on forms. Kirsty Anne does'nt like calling herself African-American. She has no relationship with Africa. The same way Lena doesnt know if she's White/Caucasian or Indian. Her great great great Grandmother was Cherokee.

I guess the way Brazilians classify race makes much more sense. A lot of people don't know which category to place themselves into. Sometimes people come from mixed families. They should have an option to place themselve sinto whatever catergory they like. On second thoughts, is it really important to belong to a particular race? Does it matter? Bob Marley was born to a British mother and an African-American father. He didn't see himself as being black. I think it would be a good idea to exclude the race option from forms.

After all the racial discrimination that our ancestors have gone through. And the number of wars based on race, we in the twenty first century should do something to remove the racial barriers. We're all human. The human race!