Sociology of Race and Ethic Relations

Two replies or critical comments to other students' postings(Response below). These replies should have a minimum of 150 words each. Read each student posting and provide a critical comment for each one. No apa required, No reference, all in your own words.

Student 1

The United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world In terms of its population’s race and ethnicity. The United States is what is referred to as a “melting pot” by many. Latinos have had many terms throughout history to categorize them into a general category under one name. These names being “Latino”, and “Hispanic” amongst other names. Pan-ethnic identities have also been around for years not only for Latinos but for many races. Panethnicity was created to categorize related ethnic groups together into a specific category. Pan-ethnic identities are formed at times for the unity of specific ethnic groups or to label a specific group of people or by political policies or mainstream establishments. Many Latino Americans, such as Dominicans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans develop new identities that are different to their own “national identities” by adopting the term “Hispanic”, “Latino”, or for a example if they are of Dominican descent who lives in America calling his or herself a “Dominican American”. These are examples of new identities that are different than the identity of their origin or the origin of their family.

Culture is an important factor of any race. Latinos tend to make their customs and culture a priority in their lives. There are many cultural elements that united Latinos in the United States. Language, food, and even religion unite Latinos. Most Latinos tend to enjoy rice and beans. Most Latinos are very religious. Spanish is usually the primary language of a Latino. To me Language is what unifies Latinos the most. Some Latinos have different accents but the language remain the same which allows for communication amongst Latinos. These are some key cultural elements that united Latinos.

Latinos have different cultures. As I mentioned before, there are elements of their cultures that unite them but still there are differences. For example, a Dominican food staple is plantains with salami and a Mexican food staple would be tacos, but both also enjoy rice and beans. Based on studies, Latinos in the United States have mixed thoughts on being categorized as a pan-ethnic group or being categorized as a specific group. Some feel as if there cultures, beliefs, and traditions are to way to different from each other to fall under one category. Others feel as if there cultures are greatly alike and do not mind being categorized under one group. Some Latinos who live in the United States consider themselves Americans and others think of themselves to unique to be a typical American.

The essays of Ruben Martinez, Otto Santa Ana, and Clara Rodriguez all examine what is identity in the Latino community. Martinez, talks about how his identity as a Latino differs according to the setting or situation he is placed in. Rodriguez speaks about how Latinos are united by many factors. Ana goes into details on the meaning of a Latino identity. All three essays are unique and correlate to each other and detail the Latino perspective of identity and the labels that are attached to Latinos that either unite them or segregate them from not only each other but their origins.

The video “Who is Chicano”, was an insightful video. I learned about the political leaders for the Chicanos and the Chicano movement. I believe that each ethnic group should express pride with whatever identity they choose. Shared culture is a great factor in progression.

Student 2

The term Latinos is used to describe  collective loyalty to Spanish roots.  The cultural elements that contributes to Latino's unification and expansion in the United States  are patters of behavior, beliefs, values, traditions, language, social need and  similar economy conditions.

Certainly, Latinos constitute a pan ethic community, because the Latinos  movement identification was created with the purpose to unify people with similar life conditions and similar interest in order to create  social changes to benefit that particular community.  Also, the Latinos identification claims Hispanic origin and the pride of being part of this very unique ethnic group, that combines a mix of different cultural elements.

The articles by Ruben  Martinez, Otto Santa,  and Ana Clara Rodriguez addressees the discussion regarding Latinos Identity in different ways.  For example, Ruben Martinez argues that there is not such a strong  Latinos identification for children that are raised in this nation just for the fact of being of having immigrants parents or Physical characteristics.  He states that people like him have to deal with the social concern  of explaining his racial identification, because he has  the combination of the two cultures  Latinos heritage and Anglo-culture.  On the other hand, Otto Santa and Ana Clara M. remark,  that Identity changes across the time, they embrace the pride of having Latinos heritage and they promote activism to promote policies to benefit Latinos community.

Regarding the video clip "Who is Chicano " I understood the different social interpretation that people has about Chicanos identity.  There are some negative prejudices related to Chicanos population that stereotype the community as people with anti-social behavior.  Also, there are some other ideologies that suggest that Chicanos are group of people under the line of poverty that belongs to the lowest social class in united States society.  However, there are other groups who identifiess as Chicanos themselves and they feel proud of their indigenous ancestor as well, they uses their Chicanos identity to expand and get support to the community that way they can get together to make social changes for the whole community and Latinos population.   In  my personal opinion, I think this video states,  a lot about division among groups in society, there is so much need to emphasizes cultural identification. Meanwhile, new groups are emerging with a combination of cultural characteristics as a result of mixing and immigration  in the United States.