Thinking About Diversity: One Student's View

The racial and ethnic categories utilized by the Census and similar surveys contribute to our knowledge of who we are as a society, but individual human identities are vastly more complex and elusive than any such system of classification can hope to convey. In his essay, "Little Boxes," college senior Anthony Wright reflects on the inadequacy of Census categories to tell him who he is. He reminds us of the wonderful richness of personal and cultural identities that ultimately defy all attempts at neat distinctions. "Little Boxes" tells us how exquisitely confusing it is to be, simply, human.

"Little Boxes"

Racial/Ethnic Definitions US Government
How would you describe yourself? (please check one)

• American Indian or Alaskan Native: A person having origins mainly of the original people of North America, and who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.
• Asian of Pacific Islander: A Person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent or the Pacific Islands, including, for example China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, Samoa, and Vietnam.
• Black Non-Hispanic: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa (except those of Hispanic origin)
• Hispanic: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
• White Non-Hispanic: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or in the Middle East.

Little Boxes

"How would your describe yourself? (please check one)"

Some aren't as cordial. "Ethnic Group." These little boxes and circles bring up an issue for me that threatens my identity. Who am I? Unlike many others, I cannot answer that question easily when it comes to ethnicity. My mother is Hispanic (for those who consider South American as Hispanic) with an Asian father and my father is white with English and Irish roots. What does that make me? My identity already gets lost when my mother becomes a "Latino" instead of an "Ecuadorian." The cultures of Puerto Rico and Argentina are distinct, even though they are both "Hispanic." The same applies to White, Asian, Native American, or Black, all vague terms trying to classify cultures that have sometimes greater disparities inside the classification than with other cultures. Yet I can't even be classified by these excessively broad terms.

My classification problem doesn't stop with my ethnicity. My father is a blue collar worker, yet the technical work he does is much more than manual labor. My family, through our sweat, brains, and savings, have managed to live comfortably. We no longer can really be classified as poor or lower class, but we really aren't middle class.

Also, in my childhood my parents became disillusioned with the Catholic religion and stopped going to church. They gave me the option of going or not, but I was lazy and opted to stay in bed late Sunday mornings. Right now I don't even know if I am agnostic, atheist or something else, like transcendentalist. I just don't fit into categories nicely.

My biggest conflict of identity comes from another source: education. In the seventh grade. I was placed in a prep school from P.S. 61. The only similarity between the two institutions is that they are both in the Bronx, yet one is a block away from Charlotte Street, a nationally known symbol of urban decay, while the other is in one of the wealthiest sections of New York City.

Prep for Prep, a program for disadvantaged students that starts in the fifth grade, worked with me for fourteen months, bringing me up to the private school level academically and preparing me socially, but still, the transition was rough. Even in my senior year, I felt like I really did not fit in with the prep school cultures. Yet I am totally separated from my neighborhood. My home happens to be situated there, and I might go to the corner bodega for milk and bananas, or walk to the subway station, but that is the extent of my contact with my neighborhood. I regret this, but when more than half the teenagers are high school drop-outs, and drugs are becoming a major industry, there is no place for me.

Prep for Prep was where I would "hang out" if not at my high school, and it took the place of my neighborhood, and has been a valuable cushion. At high school, I was separate from the mainstream majority, but still an inextricable part of it, and so I worked there and put my effort into making it a better place. For a while, I desperately wanted to fit into a category in order to be accepted. Everywhere I went I felt out of place. When I go into the neighborhood restaurant to ask for "arroz y pollo," my awkward Spanish and gringo accent makes the lady at the counter go in the back for someone who knows English, even though I think I know enough Spanish to survive a conversation. When I was little, and had short straight black hair, I appeared to be one of the few Asians in my school, and was tagged with the stereotype. I went to Ecuador to visit relatives, and they could not agree about whether I was latino or gringo. When the little boxes appeared on the Achievements, I marked Hispanic even though I had doubts on the subject.

At first sight, I can pass as white, and my last name will assure that I will not be persecuted as someone who is dark and has "Rodriques"" as his last name. I chose Hispanic because I most identified with it, because of my Puerto Rican neighborhood that I grew up in, and my mother. Putting just "Hispanic," "White" or "Asian" and "Native American" describe more than one would expect. They describe genealogy, appearance, and culture, and all very distinct things, which most people associate as one: but there exists many exceptions, like the person who grows up in the Black inner city and adopts that culture, but is white by birth, or the Puerto Rican immigrant with blue eyes and blond hair.

Religion can also obscure definitions, as is the case in Israel recently with the label "Jewish," which can be a culture or religion, and the definition of being Jewish by birth. The classifications especially get confused when appearance affects the culture, as with non-White cultures due to discrimination. Defining what is "culture" and the specifics also confuses the issue. For example, it can be argued that almost every American. regardless of race (genealogy), is at least to some degree of the white culture, the "norm" in this country. With more culturally and racially mixed people like myself entering society, these classifications have to be addressed and defined.

My mixture helps me look to issues and ideas from more than one viewpoint, and I like that. Racial, economic, social, and religious topics can be looked upon with a special type of objectivity that I feel is unique. I am not objective: I am subjective with more than one bias, so I can see both sides of an argument between a black militant and white conservative, a tenant and a landlord, or a protestant and a Catholic. I will usually side with the underdog, but it is necessary to understand opposing viewpoints in order to take a position. This diversity of self that I have, I enjoy, despite the confusion caused by a society so complex that sweeping generalizations are made. I cannot and don't deserve to be generalized or classified, just like anybody else. My background and position have affected me, but I dislike trying to be treated from that information. I am Anthony E. Wright, and the rest of the information about me should come from what I write, what I say, and how I act. Nothing else.