Being An Other By Melissa Algranati - 1294 Words

What is the obsession with people’s need of identification? People need to understand that we all are different, not everybody can fit into a group. In her article, â€Å"Being an Other,† Melissa Algranati gives a personal narrative of her life and her parent s life and how they faced discrimination and her struggles about being identified as an â€Å"other† even though she was an American born jewish and Puerto Rican. Michael Omi’s article â€Å"In Living Color: Race and American Culture† reinforces Algranati’s article since in his article he discusses about people ideas about race the stereotypes that they face. They have the same thought that Americans is obsessed with labelling people, they both discuss people’s assumptions of others based on how†¦show more content†¦We also become disoriented when people do not act â€Å"black,† â€Å"Latino,† or indeed â€Å"white.† (Omi 627) Algranati is arguing tha t Americans want everyone to classified as an ethnicity or culture, but if anyone have multiple ethnicities or multiple cultures, they are classified as an other.The classification of an other dehumanizes a person,because an other is a foreigner. When she mentions â€Å"inner-ethnic†she s describing most of the people in the US, the people in the US today are a melting pot of races and cultures. She feels like the US is forgetting about an â€Å"other.† Her tone is upset because she did not only have one culture, she had two and the PSAT only gave individual cultures and ethnicity, and the option of other. She had to choose other because she identified as more than one culture, but she could only pick one. When Omi uses words like unfamiliar and discomfort, it explains how the a lot of people are unfamiliar with a person’s race and they kind of feel the unknown, and Algranati is the unknown because she is an â€Å"other,† which is not a race. Algranati fe els discomfort when she is classified as an â€Å"other.† Similarly, Omi discusses the discomfort people feel when they see someone racially mixed, and in Algranati’s article the people that are mixed are the â€Å"other.† They both argue about the assumption people make based on a person’s physical appearance. Omi arguesShow MoreRelatedBeing an other Essay877 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿In her essay â€Å"Being an Other† Melissa Algranati talks about how she didn’t know what race category she belonged to because of her ethnic background. Algranati’s father was born in Alexandria, Egypt and her mother was born in Maniti, Puerto Rico. She is a product of marriage, and her race is a Puerto Rican Egyptian Jew. She explains how her upbringing was different because of her parents’ different racial barriers. Algranati’s supports her issue and also gives emotional appeal about her childhoodRead MoreBeing An Other : Race And American Culture1390 Words   |  6 Pageswhat is perceived as normal characterized in a particular way? The biases that individuals harbor toward each other are not based on a specific people, but instead the false ideals that those people have come to be associated with. These false representations did not come from popular culture alone, but popular culture continues to reinforce stereotypes that cause individuals to judge others based on their appearance, and how they believe that individual should behave based on their race or socioeconomic