First Blog! (Sara Ceraso) Autobiographical Post

(1) I would describe my personal ethnic and racial heritage as a white female, with heritage backgrounds of Italian, Irish and British. I usually only identify myself as Italian, mainly because that takes up the majority of my heritage and most of my cultural experiences. I do often refer to myself as Irish though because my physical appearance is more on the pale skin, light eyes and freckles side. Unfortunately for me I am 75% Italian and have a really hard time holding a tan.
(2) I can't really bring myself back to a specific time where I realized that issues of ethnicity and race originated. I guess they were always there. That kind of sounds horrible that I can't remember a time where race didn't matter in the world I have grown up in. If I had to narrow it down at all I would probably say in middle school. Kids can be cruel and jokes of minorities are everywhere, even if we were too young to even know what they meant. But I am very proud to call myself "open minded" and I do not consider myself prejudiced at all.
(3) My mom and dad are very open minded as well when it comes to race and diversity. My dad especially. I think part of it comes from me actually. I remember getting mad at people, specifically those in my extended family who are not as excepting. My dad would always see how mad and frustrated I would get and ultimately took my side every time. So although my parents taught me to be accepting of everyone I can't lie and say that there hasn't been some negative influences in my family in regards to people of other races. I am just glad I was and still am smart enough to ignore or disagree with certain ignorant comments and that they haven't influenced my beliefs.
(4) My views on race and ethnicity have always been the same. I would probably say that I have actually gotten better at accepting there are people who are not as open minded and nothing will change there mind. Their loss though right?
(5) I think everyone has seen instances of racism in their lifetime. I am just glad I grew up in a time where it was decreasing. I remember in high school my boyfriend of the time was half black and half white. Some "friends" weren't really all for it and told me that my parents wouldn't be either and that they would never tell their parents if they were me. I went home to my parents and was almost scared to tell them that my boyfriend was a different race because of what my friend's said. But I did and they came back with the comment, "did you actually think we would care about that." I'll never forget that.