I am a Caucasian with French and German background who has lived in the United States for my entire life. Growing up as a child it has been very easy for me to deal with my racial background. This is because I have never had to worry about someone mistreating me because of my skin color. I do not have to worry about whether I am going to be judged differently because I'm white if I walk into a department store. I can honestly say that I have never been threatened due to my racial background. On the other hand I have received some flack for having German descent. People often think that because I am German, I supported all that Hitler did, which is completely untrue.
             Although I am proud of who I am and where I come from, I am not proud of what some of my ancestors and fellow whites have done. Unfortunately there is very little I can do now to change what happened in the past. I still feel very bad for the mistreatment that some whites give blacks. Also I am most certainly not proud of what my German heritage has done in the past. I am thoroughly embarrassed to be of the same ancestry of anyone who was part of the German Nazi Party. What the Germans did to the Jewish people was completely inhumane and intolerable, and I wish to have no part in what they did.
             Even though the past of my racial/ethnic identity may not speak very well for me, I am not responsible for what happened in the past. Almost everybody in the world discriminates or holds biases against something that is different from them. It is my job to make sure that I do not fall into the similar paths that my ancestors previously fell into, and I spread my knowledge onto younger generations to come.
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