"RACIAL IDENTIFICATION IN AMERICA"
Americans are unique in the way they describe and define race and identify to
characteristics that other cultures view differently. Genuine racial identity and integration is a
necessary condition for eradication of white racism at both the individual and institutional levels.
Whatever the word "race" may mean elsewhere in the world, or to the world of science, it is clear
that in America the categories are arbitrary, confused, and hopelessly intermingled. America
frequently confuses the ideas of segregation, suppression, and struggle associated with our
history and imposes these ideas onto many black historical figures, artists, and people of
multiracial color. Because we live in a still-segregated world, the truth is that many white
Americans don't have the slightest idea what Americans of color go through with race and
identity. This is a dilemma in America today.
Langston Hughes, is one of many African -American writers who is more than aware of this
issue of racism. He wrote a short-story called, " Who's Passing for Who"? (Bohner 482), that
implemented the significance of the color of skin. Though racism seems to be dormant today, it
is still very much an issue that cannot be forgotten. Hughes used a fictional story to light-
heartedly portray the importance of ancestral knowledge and affects on our generation.
Hughes also portrayed how perception of skin color can really make a difference in a
situation. When the man was seen hitting his fair-skinned wife, it was first seen as a black man
hitting a white women, not just a marriage dispute. What would have happened to the man if
she was really white? Hughes also portrays how race is important. Even though the woman was
hit by here husband, she still made it evident that she was black. Today, more so than si...