As a white, male who grew up in an upper middle-class family I am very lucky to have not experienced any serious situation of negative rhetoric from my identity. A couple times people have told me my opinion is invalid in the argument: which sometimes I do agree I have no say from my lack of experiences. However, me not having a say is nothing for me to complain about compared to those that go through real struggles that must be heard. One time my rhetoric of identity has actually hurt me was in high school during a science project. I came from a school that was 72% Asian and my science project was to create an air filter that would be presented at an event in Orlando. My group consisted of me, a white guy, and seven of my friends, all of whom are Asian. While working at my friend’s house I told our group I’d take the filter home to revise it and check the calculations, when my friend’s mom walked in a said “Are you guys sure you want the white boy to check it.” I never felt isolated like this and something that was this small made me realize the problems that minorities must deal with on a day to day bases because of their identity. Another time my rhetoric identity has been a negative is here at Notre Dame. I am currently in Zahm House, the dorm on campus known for partying and other things, and whenever I introduce myself to new people and they find out where I live, they usually respond with “Ohhh, so you’re one of those types of boys.” This angers me because we never even chose our dorm and we are getting judged for it.
When I reflect on these incidences, I realize what it can be like to be someone who is not in the majority somewhere. While my situations are clearly not even close to what some groups must go through, I can understand what they are going through to an extent because if I felt bad about myself briefly for something so small, then it must be very tough for others: especially at a time like this in America. Overall, I have been blessed to not have had too many problems with my rhetoric identity; however, the few times I have felt out of place allows me to feel for those with real problems and how we must advocate and help out their causes.
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