Who are you

by: Kate Hager

What is race? What have we made of race? How would you define your race? Race is fluid. Race is not the color of your skin. The color of your skin might make up how you define your race, but it’s more than that; it’s your culture, what unites you to your neighbors, it’s where passions lie; what are we going to make it? According to Lopez, “Race is neither an essence nor an illusion, but rather an ongoing, contradictory, self-reinforcing process subject to the macro forces of social and political struggle and the micro effects of daily decisions.” As a society, have we ceased the flow of race? Race is what we make it; it is not a genetic disposition between you or I. Stubblefield states, “Although there are biological reasons for one’s physical appearance, there are no other biologically interesting differences between humans significant enough to affect our basic capabilities.” We each have 23 pairs of chromosomes, we each have a beating heart, we each have 206 bones. Is it because our minds have stopped at the surface level of skin color and failed to reach souls that we lose the ability to see past one difference? We are each made in the same way, by the same creator — or whatever you choose to believe in. Why are there so many judgements on the color of our skin, the color of our hair, the shapes of our eyes, our athletic ability; where does the separation stop and the uniting begin? Why can we not see each other as parts to a whole rather than pieces we don’t recognize? When will we stop looking at people for the melanocytes in their cells and start seeing their insides — what their hearts beat for, where their passions lie, and how they’ve come to where they are?

Neuroscientists have found research that “attention to race occurs within 120 milliseconds after you see a person.” Noticing someone else’s differences from you may be a rooted thing in the brain, but when did a stigma come with it? When we add “circumstances attributing race to self worth, this becomes bias, bigotry, or better known as racism.” To notice the difference in skin color is instinctual, we notice it automatically; but it is not human nature to stereotype, that is learned.

Why is it that when we see a man with a turban around his head board our plane, our stomachs drop a little; why is it that when we see a black man walking behind us at night, we pick up the pace a little more; why is it that when we see a white man in a van, our instinct is to run? When did stereotypes seep into our brains, seep into our beings and how do we rid ourselves of them?

I don’t have an answer.

I know we were created equally, I know we each are made up of the same fiber of beings, I know we each are made up of tiny cells each contributing to our life as of this moment.

I don’t know how to change stereotypes that seem to be so deeply rooted in each individual, I don’t know how to unite under one union, I don’t know how to convince every human to see the next human as one in the same as themselves; one with a beating heart, one with a story, one with a mom and a dad, one who walks in the brokenness of this world, and one who only wants to be seen for who they are.

I cannot give an answer to these things. I cannot change your mind on how you see the person sitting next to you, but I can allow you into my thoughts over this and provide my hope that one day we will be united; where the color of skin is no longer how we define our neighbor. Race is what we make it, not a pool of genes.

As Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Innocence, in a sense, is what we are striving for — to have a pure heart that only sees souls. I am more interested in your heart than the color of your skin. I want to know your “race” in the sense of where did you come from, what cultural practices do you have, what do you believe in; but I don’t care to identify you by your skin color.

I will be identified as a follower of Jesus, a broken sinner, a redeemed daughter, a lover of people, an awkward soul, but I will not be identified as white. The color of my skin is white, but that does not tell you my story, that does not tell you where I have been, where I was born, what I believe in, what I want to accomplish or who I am.

Who are you?

Works Cited

Johnson, B. What Is Race And Why Does It Matter So Much? (2014). Retrieved October 10, 2015.

Lopez, I. Race, Racism and the Law.

Stubblefield, Anna. “Racial Identity and Non-Essentialism About Race.” Social Theory and Practice.