What Race Are You?

What race are you? Well that is a very hard question to answer. This week in class we learned all about race. We did a ball experiment where my teacher layed out several different types of balls. The balls ranged from a basketball to a wiffle ball. He had us categorize the balls in whatever way we wanted to. I chose to categorize by color, but other class mates did it by texture, the sport the ball belonged to, etc. Through the experiment we realized that race is just like categorizing the balls. No matter how you view a race, or a ball, there is someone out there who is categorizing someone or something differently then you are. There is no possible way to biologically separate people into "races." There is no exact way that race can be defined because race is considered different all over the world. For example we learned that in Brazil they base race off of what someone looks like as oppose to in America, we base race off of what our parents are. I first believed that what my teacher was telling me was a lie. I didn't believe that race was different depending on where you lived in the world. I just thought that everyone thought that if you had Irish parents, you were Irish. If you had African American parents, you were considered African American. If you had Asian parents, you were considered Asian. It was simple in my mind, however, that's not the case.
In class we were also shown a cartoon of a creature that had a bottle in his hand sitting on a barrel; it was a disturbing picture. Then my teacher read us a caption basically saying that this picture represented a race that was dirty, always drinking, and just cruel assumptions about that group. Then, my teacher asked what race is this explaining? At first people were throwing out random races that have a bad reputation to some people this day in age...and then we find out it was describing the Irish! As someone who is very Irish, I was offended; but it made me realize how every group at one point had to prove that they were "white." As wrong as it is, every race has to grow through times where they aren't accepted. Why is this? I have no clue, but to the world "white" is good and if you aren't "white" then there have been or will be times of struggle.