Week 7: Race

For those of who don't know, my parents are from India and my I identify myself as Indian. I was born and raised in California and my parents, who have been here most of their lives, have adopted the American culture as their own yet still kept a few Indian traditions, values and other memes of culture. When I thought about my first expirience with race, I couldn't believe I remembered all the way back to the fourth grade. The very first time I became conscious of my race was when I was about 9 years old and we had international day at school. The youngest class that took part was the fourth grade, so it was my first year. I had one older sister at the school, and my mom worked there so she was a parent volunteer. One of the countries we got to learn about was India, and my mom was the volunteer for it's booth. I helped her and that was the first time I really remember noticing that I was Indian and my friends were other races such as Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Italian, and Mexican. My mom brought traditional Indian clothes that she had and some food that I was used to eating. I had never thought about what other kids ate at home, but I thought it was similar to what I ate. As it turns out, almost nobody had tried the Indian snacks my mom had brought. This is the first time I became conscious about race and my race in particular.