On becoming white :: Ethnicity Personal Narrative Racial

On becoming white As a European immigrant in the USA, I have encountered many new cultural phenomena in the last 4 _ years that have challenged me to perceive who I am differently. This experience has been even more polarized by the feature that I have lived most of that time in Los Angeles, a melting green goddess to be reckoned with. Coming to America, I expected these adaptations to my Irish self scarcely the intensity of becoming cognizant of my label of whiteness has mocked the limitations of my anticipations. This cognizance really ensued when I first started work as an educational therapist in a residential placement for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls. existence in such a arbitrary position of power was trying enough with people who have issues with control and lack of respect from elders only if I also happened to be the only male ever in this position at the facility and a white guy to boot. cardinal percent of my clients happened to be Latina or Afr ican American. This ethnic flash range did not initially bother me because of my lack of awareness of its existence and my unreserved determination that it was not all important(predicate) for my healing(p) and educational goals. However, of course I had not really considered at that time what being white really entails in this society. Consideration of ones identity is obviously key to successful educational and therapeutic interventions but it took the actual experience of being what I call white-washed to garner me realize that skin color may actually have something important to do with ones perceived identity. The incident actually occurred in my home in a banal everyday interaction with a plumber who was fastness our shower. Firstly, the plumber who was Caucasian continually bombarded his younger, Latino assistant with racial insults in the main to the tune of you stupid Mexican. When he realized that we were staring at his comments he explained that his assistant gets it from his mothers side. This young man was in fact the plumbers son He then went onto talking intimately how America is today, and how being a fellow American, I should understand that. Of course I at present responded with Im not American, to which he countered Oh I thought you were white.....I mean American. I think that this slip by the plumber reveals something of great importance about attitudes, assumptions and beliefs about ethnic identity that is very open to semiotic analysis.