Part I: Naming Ourselves Essay

Submitted By idontknow10
Words: 460
Pages: 2

Introduction: Part one is entitled “Naming Ourselves”, and when I first read the title I thought to myself “what would I have named myself if I had the opportunity to choose my name?” I thought, “Is this section going to explain how we name our children and the meaning behind those names?” Knowing that this is a course in intercultural communication, I wondered how our names played a role within our cultures and society. The next two topics that I am going to write about are the two topics that struck me the most while reading.
Imagining Identity Within Community: Individualism, Diversity, Community, Culture – Within this first essay we are submerged in the life of an Asian-American. We explore what it is like to be stereotyped by race. “Oh you’re Asian, you must be really smart, but you probably do not excel at anything else”. The statement, “to generate social change one needs to social injustice and discrimination, create new opportunities, and forge new alliances” (Gonzalez, Houston & Chen, 2011) really made me think. As a community, we must create the change; we cannot rely on the government or others to change our views on race and discrimination. We must begin the change ourselves, as individuals within a community.
African American Self-Reliance in Postracial America:
When I first read the heading of chapter two, my first thought was, “are we really past racial segregation?” I do believe that there is still some discrimination between the races. Although I do not agree with the statement “…postracial assertions made by political commentators are contradicted by the disparities in access to health care, income, and education among racial and ethnic groups” (Gonzalez, Houston & Chen, 2011). I am not an