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Im a 20 year old American born and raised in San Antonio Texas. My roots trace back to Mexico where my family is from. My family has passed down language, traditions, and values that keep me connected to where we come from. I carry pride in my background and learned to define myself beyond negative stereotypes but I am also young and have much to learn in how I understand identity, race, and belonging.

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For a long time I never gave much thought to the significance of where my family is from and how that defines me. Coming to Gettysburg College where I was presented with different cultures and race and seeing the differences it made me reflect on my culture. There was times where I questioned if I was Mexican enough or American and where I stood but being introduced to my culture through language made me feel strongly connected and made me feel proud.

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The readings we discussed in class have been embedded to me from different aspects. Through previous years I was taught about Jim Crow laws and in this reading it was a physiological encounter of the toll these laws had on African Americans. Wright's reflections are heartbreaking but crucial. They remind me that identity is not something you just "have" it's something you constantly have to fight for.

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"He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face."

W.E.B DuBois captures the "double consciousness" which he emphasizes the painful tension of trying to live peacefully as both Black and American in a society that continues to reject this from happening.

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In class we discussed many hard and sensitive topics about the history of African Americans. Lynching was not just a way of brutality and violence it was used as a tool to terrorize African Americans and strip them down of their identity. To make them scared and have fear and to make it known they have no power.

This was also during the time period where "Birth of a nation" was released. Which shows the superiority of white people during the Reconstruction era and how black men are shown as aggressive towards white woman and the KKK are portrayed as hero's. Mind you the president during this time loved this film. It made me perceive America differently in how we as the "great country of America" has done this and many other crimes to our own.

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Wright, Richard. The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch. 1937. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Valerie Smith, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2014, pp. 1–9.

Du Bois, W.E.B. “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.” The Souls of Black Folk, 1903. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Terri Hume Oliver, W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, pp. 9–14.

Griffith, D. W., director. The Birth of a Nation. David W. Griffith Corp., 1915.