Required: Interview

Questions

1. What race are you?
2. How do you know? How do you make that decision?
3. How did you learn what race you are? Can you tell me about some of the early messages you received about race in general or your race in particular?
4. How do you decide what race other people are? Examples?
5. How do other people decide what race you are? Examples?

Me:

1. I'm Asian.
2. From generations to generations society have been calling us Asians. I can't call myself any other race because then it would've been wrong in the eyes of others. 
3. I learned about my race when I enter kindergarten. I would hear and see people ask each other what race they would and somehow it came to my knowledge that I was Asian.
4 &5. From when I was younger, I see people tell me I was Asian because of my skin color, hair, and facial features. Not only that, I think televisions were the biggest source of me discovering how to define someone's race. Their skin tone, hair, their native language and etc.  

First Person:

Very good questions. For me, race and ethnicity are 2 very different things. My race is, of course, Asian. I've determined that I am of an Asian race based on my physical and biological characteristics passed down genetically from generation to generation. Normally when we look at people, we'll say they're "Caucasian, African, Indian, Asian, etc." And this is all based on their physical appearance. Really, what we are doing is trying to figure out what race they are. If you really want to know specifically what ethnicity they are, then, of course, you'd have to ask and not assume. That's my unprofessional biased answer to you, Ms. Jenny

Second Person:

1. I am Asian. 
2. I know because the system says so. If you want to be more specific then it’s ethnicity you’re talking about 
3. I know because when I took state tests they always asked what race I am, but people base race on your physical appearance. Doesn’t mean that they’re all the same but race does generalize everything. 
4. And well since it is this physical thing, then just by the color of their skin or if that’s not clear enough, a certain facial feature
5. Well I look super Asian so that’s what people categorize me as

Third Person:

1. Asian
2. I didn't know. I was told I am Asian. So now I affiliate with the term Asian because of my ancestry and their origin from Asia. It was a way to identify what I am.
3. People would ask me what race or ethnicity I was and I wouldn't know how to answer because I wasn't built to know this as I was growing up. I only became aware that I was different when they'd call me Asian and other kids made fun of me with certain stereotypical features Asian people are known to have such as chinky eyes. I was categorized as Asian through the government system as well which helped my interpretation of an identity as an Asian person. 
4. Because race is considered a highly social construct, it is based on the differing physical features of people such as face shape and structure as well as skin tone.
5. People decide my race by my physicality. I have a yellow tone to my skin, eyes that are slightly slanted and round, that aren't hooded and deep socket, etc. It is also slightly decided through your family and history such as the geographical location from where we came from but that still ties back into physical features as the main characteristic of what race is.

Fourth Person: 

1. Asian
2. Because of my characteristic, traits, culture, and beliefs. Generation after generation 
3. Appearance, culture, language. As mentioned before appearances, culture, language, history..etc
4. You can tell by their native language if not then you ask. 
5. My skin tone, and hair. My native language, and features.

All of the participants agreed that their race is based on their features, from hair, eyes, skin tone, etc. Some even brought up ancestors and their regions, but where and who named those regions and gave us our race? As some of the participants may say it is constructed by society. Who said our eyes are slanted, and that our skin tones are yellow? Society. I do agree that many of us have never thought about what race we were until we entered school and realized that someone is labeling us as Asians, African Americans, or Europeans.