Ashley Miranda, Post 1

My background is Italian, German, Polish and Welsh. I predominantly identify myself with my Italian heritage because that is what I am most familiar of. I am a very pale person, so when I announce that I am Italian I am usually laughed at because Italians are expected to have very dark skin, so I then go on to say I’m Welsh (which explains the light skin) and that I’m Polish as well as German. People start to understand my looks a bit more when I run through my entire background rather than just shouting out that I’m a stubborn, loud Italian.

My family has documents from the early 1900’s showing that my great, great grandfather Dominico came to America from Poggiomarino, a small farm town from Italy. Both my mother’s and father’s side of the family have Italian backgrounds so this is what I grew up knowing. We would say “Buon Natale” for Merry Christmas and when I was younger my grandpa would say, “manja manja” which means “eat! eat!” My grandfather taught me to be a good Italian wife by having me learn to cook in the kitchen with my grandmother from a very young age.

Growing up I was pretty ignorant to race issues. I’m still learning about them today to tell the truth. I’ve read about the history behind them but am sad to say a little on the naive side of knowing what surrounds race issues today. Much of the older generation of my family is what I would call semi-racist. They say things about different races that I am completely taken back by because I don’t hold those beliefs at all or would I ever think to say those things. I would have to say this is where my first encounter with racism began. To this day I still disagree with what I hear my family saying, but most of the time I just keep my mouth shut because I know that my family is very stubborn in their ways and refuse to admit that they may be wrong in saying negative things about others.

Over time my views of race and ethnicity have shifted drastically. I have always been one to be open to all types of people, regardless of any skin color, ethnic background, or anything of the sort. My family like I said before was not always as accepting as I was to take people for who they are. Before judging somebody I try my hardest to allow them a fair chance to show me who they are before I make any generalizations about them. From a young age, my parents didn’t ever push their views on me, but it was hard not to hear what they and the rest of my family were saying. I started to believe what they had said but then remembered that I had my own mind and could think however I wanted to, my parents couldn’t control that. In middle school I opened up to many people, including my group of friends who became a melting pot of races and ethnicities. I was able to get my own little taste of how different races and ethnicities interact and it was a great experience.

I haven’t personally experienced any extreme forms of racism, but I most definitely have heard racial slurs that have been directed at many different people. My high school was predominantly white, so when students of other races had come from the city and moved into our schools it seemed to cause tension at first, but other than the first few initial days all the students, no matter what race, were back to normal.