Recognize individuality instead of group identity

Recognize individuality instead of group identity

By Sonia Ortega

I was appalled by Shari Missaghi’s article, "Don’t deny it:
stereotypes exist at UCLA," that ran in the Mon., Jan. 30, issue of
the Daily Bruin.

Missaghi states she was angry when her childhood friend lumped
her into the category of Mexican simply because she had dark hair
and dark eyes. She then turns around and says that everyone at her
high school looked the same, talked the same and dressed the same.
She even gives their height, eye and hair color.

That is ridiculous! How can Missaghi ask for people to recognize
her individuality and then blatantly strip that individuality away
from her classmates, lumping them all into the category of rich
Jews?

I myself have had many struggles with racial identity, being
half African American and half Mexican American in a predominantly
white and Asian neighborhood. I would be the last one to admit that
segregation is not a daily occurrence on the UCLA campus; too often
do I get the feeling that everyone neatly slips into their racial
cliques while I and others like myself slip through the cracks.

Yet as we work toward a society that looks past cultural and
racial lines, the worst thing we can do is make sweeping
generalizations. The words, "Oh, those people, they’re all the
same," make me cringe.

We are not all the same. No group of people is all the same.
These sorts of descriptions return us to the tiresome stereotypes
that cloud our eyes and cause us to see people as objects to be put
in little boxes rather than as human beings that have feelings and
personalities.

I am proud to be a part of one of the most diverse student
bodies in the country. I know there will always be people who will
want to stick with their own kind; believe me, I feel it every time
I walk by those groups. I will never fit in with anyone who chooses
their friends by color and race.

But there are scores of other people, people who forge
friendships on the basis of common interests and shared goals
rather than the things about ourselves we have no control over and
can never change. The sooner we stop telling ourselves, "Those
people are all the same," the closer we will come to a nation that
recognizes individuality over group identity.

Ortega is a freshman and has not yet declared a major.