Navigating through Color Blind or Color Brave

 After watching Mellody Hobson's "Color Blind or Color Brave?" she brought up great points of how subconsciously people will try to not see race and not let them impact how they treat others but that takes away the fact that people of color have faced struggles and are able to embrace that their skin is beautiful and powerful and not acknowledging that is taking away from that power. I feel like white people at times don't see that if you don't acknowledge that race has an effect in a lot of scenarios it is being blind to color and not helping the racial issue it is more so hurting it. 

    I feel as though the phrase "intent vs. impact" is a great connection of this concept. You may think that you are "not seeing color" and treating everyone equally but subconsciously you may do something where you do not acknowledge the fact that people go through struggles with their race and identity and have a different outlook on how they view their identity. With that being said after creating my identity map I noticed some connections that I had made towards my identity and how it has created the person I am today. Things that make me who I am that I would like to emphasize is a first generation college student, a women, and my Portuguese and Italian backgrounds. These are all things that I feel really make up who I am today. 

    Being a first generation college student has given me opportunities here at RIC to connect with others that are also first generation students as well. With that being said I know how proud this makes my parents as well as myself allowing me to push myself to my greatest potential and know that I am one of the first people in my family being given the opportunity to see what higher ed has to offer and how to prosper here. As a women I am proud of all the accomplishments I have made and how self sufficient and independent I am. Lastly having my Portuguese and Italian background I am so blessed to be so involved in both of my cultural backgrounds. With my dad's side of the family being from the Azores and moving here when he was 7 years old there are so many traditions, food dishes and recipes, and more that he has brought into our families. My mom is adopted and has adapted her traditional Italian traditions from her adopted family however when she recently connected to her biological mother about five years ago we were able to connect and learn new traditions and a little bit of the language from her side.