Asserting One's Heritage

Heritage assertiveness is a human earns pride and the drive that makes him or her play his part as a human with confidence every where he or she goes. Those who are not confident with their heritage tend to attain an inferiority complex every time they move to a different destination. However, it has its negativity. It is what that makes humans to view one another as different, and gear prejudice in them. Therefore, asserting one’s heritage is safest when it is used to enforce individual confidence and unity with other people who may be considered different.

Ms. Forero is a Latino teenager who is extremely confident with what she wears. She utterly displays Latino’s way of dressing for young women. She looks extra-ordinary.  The clothing gives her a sense of belonging i.e. to her cultural heritage. According to the text, she considers the style to be bordered on self parody. She satirically imitates their serious way of dressing. This makes the dressing more attractive, and therefore, gears the pride she has. She did not posses it until she aggressively asserts her heritage with the clothes (Ferla).

Kenneth Lamadrid is Cuban. However, other people do not recognize that because of how he looks. His pride and assertiveness for his cultural heritage gives him the sense of being extra-ordinary and different.  That is the safest extent. Otherwise, anything swaying from that is prejudice. One’s pride should not accumulate to the extent of hurting others.

According to the second text, people are proud of their heritage, and all they can do is educate others about it, then it is healthy. When another person shows interest to another person’s cultural heritage, he or she feels more confident, appreciated, peaceful and emotionally elevated. This is different from when a person uses his or her pride for his or her heritage to scold another person of a different race. Joy, confidence and love fill the hearts of parents and children of the Edgewood school when they get to assemble, and share their cultural heritage and knowledge. According to the text, parents conducted one hundred activities with the objective of educating children about their heritage.

 A mother to one student in the school gives the teachers her genealogical ideas, in creating a genealogy project. The teachers get to know how to help students explore their heritage, and how to use it in creating social unity between the children. Heritage asserting can never be that good. It is the optimum point, disastrous if taken further i.e. to individuality.

However, excessive asserting of one’s heritage, to the extent that it looks like a mockery of other people’s heritage is a significant problem. It limits social interaction between people. Ms. Forero’s image is bordered on self parody. Her satirical imitation of the Latino dressing is so moving and outstanding.  It beats the extreme side with a lot of down looking of the other cultural dresses. Mockery will only be received by people with a negative attitude towards the Latino.

Lamadrid takes pain in making other people get it straight, that she is Cuban. This means he faces some opposition when he tries to assert his heritage. His way of doing it is negative because it defies other people’s thoughts that he is American. Therefore, it appears like a fight against other races and heritages.

According to the second text, when one stays in his own small world, one does not realize other people’s unpleasant experiences. This makes a person exercise his or her prejudice against other people. Therefore, asserting ones heritage to gain prejudice brings in negative results i.e. discrimination (Inquirer).

In the Edgewood school event the theme was that, they are all different, but they can learn from one another if they try. Therefore, prejudices come in when people assert their own heritages, and accept that they are different, but lack to try and learn from one another.

The writer states that, for prejudice to be eliminated, we need to be taught, appreciate the teachings of others, and be ready to teach others too. Prejudice is something that comes from within, and its cure comes from within too. It is how far and in which way people assert their heritage that matters. Therefore, asserting one’s heritage is safest when it is used to enforce individual confidence and unity with other people who may be considered different.