Personal Narrative Race Essay

Submitted By meghagerty14
Words: 291
Pages: 2

A Personal Narrative of Race
How have I constructed race in my life?

To help initiate our conversation about race, we are going to begin by exploring our own history with the idea. This assignment is rather simple: tell a story about when you first became aware of your own race – your “blackness,” “whiteness,” “Asian­ness,”
“Latino­ness,” etc . Consider these central questions:

When was the first time that race mattered – whether in a positive or negative way – in the construction of your identity? When did you first understand you were different than other people (because of your race) and how did that change your perception of the yourself and the world?
Consider how others used race to define you and/or how you began to define yourself through race. If you absolutely cannot think of a moment from your past where you became aware of your own racial identity, as a last resort you can tell about how you witnessed someone else constructing their own race or constructing someone else’s race. Regardless of the subject matter, remember you are writing a narrative and you want to keep your audience engaged in the story. Keep the following in mind:
● Stay in the singular moment. And just show us the moment. Avoid the desire to tell us what it all means.
● Use plenty of imagery – appeal to as many senses of the audience as possible – make sure they can see, hear, smell, touch and taste the moment you are describing.
● Capture as many concrete