This week we watched “Between: Living In The Hyphen” in class and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. As a young Caucasian woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes, it is very hard for me to imagine feeling racially discriminated against, as I never have been before. Living in Canada, a nation known for its diverse and accepting ways, it was incredibly hard for me to watch the documentary, as many told their stories of being discriminated against. Tying into “Diamond Grill” the question of identity was ever so present in both pieces of work. Fred Wah, being only 1/8th Chinese, still was discriminated against on many occasions, despite his European heritage. It is hard for me to fathom treating someone differently based on their race. Yes, when I look at someone I notice that they may look different than me, however, the color of their skin, or their ethnicity does not change my opinion of them in the slightest way. Yes, growing up in the 21st century means that I will not witness much of the discrimination that was present earlier years, however, “Between” was made in 2004 which is what is most shocking.

In “Diamond Grill” and “Between: Living In the Hyphen” the identity of mixed ethnicities is examined. In “Between” one of the major questions that stems is why one has to be one race or the other, but cannot relate to both? I remembered seeing a piece on CNN about children in the US who subconsciously racially discriminate. The children may not realize that they are discriminating others based on their ethnicities, yet this CNN piece showed how children in today’s society see race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbvBJULVnc

“1/4th of children saw their race more positively than the other” (CNN, 2012). A child is largely motivated by the people around them. The way they think and act, are all reflections of they way they have been taught. If a child is racially discriminatory, without even truly understanding race, it is unquestionably a reflection of what they have seen and heard form those who influence them. Parents are a child’s biggest influence in the early years of life. It is important to teach children that we are all people, no matter the color of ones skin, or the ethnicity of their parents or grandparents. Respect should be shown to all.

“Once upon a time they was two girls,” I say. “one girl had black skin, one girl had white.”
Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.
“Little colored girl say to little white girl, ‘How come your skin be so pale?’ White girl say, ‘I don’t know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?’
“But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, ‘Well, let’s see. You got hair, I got hair.'”I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.
“Little colored girl say ‘I got a nose, you got a nose.'”I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.
“Little white girl say, ‘I got toes, you got toes.’ And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can’t get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.
“‘So we’s the same. Just a different color’, say that little colored girl. The little white girl she agreed and they was friends. The End.”

(The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 2008)