Erin Goldberg Post #1

I'll start by being frank: I have no idea what my complete ethnic heritage is. It's not that I was adopted or that my family records got lost somewhere along the line. No, the reason I don't know my full ethnic heritage is, is because my father thinks it's funny to give me a new family story every time I ask him. For a few years he used to tell me that he was half German and half Russian, making me a quarter each. Then he decided our family came from Lithuania. Now he says that he says that his full heritage is Russian. I've given up on asking him. My mom has always been consistent with her answer ("You're a quarter French Canadian, 12.5% Irish, and 12.5% Scottish on my side"). So for me, I've always just gone with the reliable answer of telling people I'm an ethnic mutt. And that's fine with me, because I don't identify strongly with any part of my ethnicity. I suppose that in the legal sense, I would be considered white or Caucasian. Translucent might be a bit more accurate, and I can't get a tan to save my life (although I burn quite magnificently).

In terms of my awareness of race and how I was brought up on issues concerning race, I never had anything particularly unique occur to me. My parents are divorced and I have a pretty diverse family in terms of color, sexuality, and ethnicity. I have three gay uncles, and one whose partner is African American. I'm sure at some point someone in my life had a talk with me about race, but to be honest I don't remember and it really didn't matter. People are people, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality.

I will say though, that I grew up in one of the most racially and diversity lacking communities. I live in Williamsville NY, which is a suburb of Buffalo. It is mostly filled with WASP's, with the occasional Catholic thrown in the mix. However, I can say that my graduating class had maybe 5% ethnic minorities. I also acknowledge that most of these kids felt pressured to fit into "white culture" constantly and there wasn't much room at my school for diversity. However, to my knowledge, there was no obvious display of racism. But there was never much effort made to teach ethnic or racial diversity.

My views on race and ethnicity have certainly changed as I have grown. While before I used to just believe that ethnic tolerance was important for the sake of being important. However, now I know the deep and lasting impact that racism can have (along with homophobia and sexism). I think a large part of this has to do with my work in the Center for Multicultural Affairs. It has definitely changed me for the better.