This Monday, I watched an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun called “Dick Like Me.” Mind you, the main character in this show is named Dick and all the episode titles make puns of his name. Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a prepubescent teenager is featured in this show, which is pretty cool. Some quick premise – Dick’s family consists of aliens who come to Earth and are relatively unknowledgeable about human identities.
This episode explored the idea of coming into the human race completely unfamiliar with race and racial divides – which is sort of a hard concept to imagine since I feel as if we have generally been pre-programmed to at least distinguish between different races. Regardless, Dick tries to find ways to fit into some sort of identity and ends up confused as to why some of his efforts end up really offending some.
But I don’t blame him.
If I could imagine myself entirely foreign to the idea that a different species from me had its own, partially self-imposed kind of classification, I too would want to try to fit in.
Especially in such a big country (figure 10.1), I would only imagine it to be extremely overwhelming to assimilate into the grander population. But in order to break it down I would do my research in order to see what similarities I shared with the culture or lifestyle of ethnic groups and break it down from there. I don’t believe there is a “best” identity per se, but rather a “best” fit for someone.
I would look for a race that I feel the most connected to in terms of ideal and philosophy. As long as those general ideas connect, I believe that the remaining customs would be easy to learn along the way. And the rest would probably just be a lot of playing by ear; I wouldn’t say anything that would be remotely offensive unless I hear it used first. This way, I’d learn the lingo and the acceptable comments or questions to ask about one’s ethnicity.
But that’s just what I would probably do. What about you?
Infographic source: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/soc/essoc4/img/infographics/ch10_infographic.jpg
Thought Bubble 
You make a really good point about how our concepts of race and racial divisions have nearly been pre-programmed in us. If we do not take a chance to ponder how it is that we are commonly viewing people, we may not even realize that we are categorizing different groups of people. It seems like you would be able to easily adapt to the group of people you decide to assimilate with, but what would you do if that group of people did not so readily accept you in?
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I agree! I think that sometimes we don’t realize the bias we may hold automatically towards others, even if not on purpose. I think that if I didn’t fit into the group that I felt most comfortable with, it wouldn’t be worth trying any. Because if they don’t want me as a member, that means I probably didn’t really understand their values that well in the first place. Instead, maybe that would open my eyes to see more or a different group that I would fit into better.
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I agree with you. I would do my research and go out and see which ethnic groups I have the most similarities with. I also agree with your belief that we have been pre-programmed to distinguish between different races. Would your assimilation be easier or more difficult if you found yourself being similar to more than one race/entnicity?
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I think assimilation would both be easier and harder – it would be harder to pick one to really identify with if you have similarities with multiple races. However, at the same time, at the end of the day, whichever one I end up picking would probably require a lot of thought and introspection to choose. I think through that process, I would really learn what I want in my identity.
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I never really thought about the fact that we are pre-programmed from a very young age to think about race. Assimilating into new racial ideas would be difficult if you had no race to identify with in the first place, but I like the idea of experiencing the differences in ethnic groups to try to find out where I would fit in best. I think that could be a good way to see the differences in cultural backgrounds, and would help me identify myself better.
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