On Becoming a Chicano

My racial identity to me is African American. Others in society identify me as just a black person with dreads. Most people even see me as threat because my appearance and the way they think I live my life. This is all because I’m 230 lbs 5 foot 11, with dark skin and dreadlocks. As a young black male I go through a lot of struggles but one of the major I faced as high school student is learning in class and still seeming cool to my friends. I guess being smart was not the coolest thing you could do in cool to some of my friends. Another dilemma I faced in high school was learning how to speed read. I found myself having a very hard time getting a clear and strong understanding of what I read if would speed. As time went along I notice steady improvement in my understanding when I read more rapidly. Also in my home between my parents and siblings we would all use incorrect grammar are as most people call slang. When I started to progress in school my teachers would begin to correct me when I started to make use of incorrect grammar. So it became a habit to correct myself when began to use slang.


My experiences are similar to Rodrigues’s because he had to deal with racial profiling as well as I did. When he was viewed by society are individuals he was just another Chicano are in my position another black person. They would always think he was the same as every other person from his cultural background. One of the other major ways our experiences are similar is because I in some way had to learn a new language. That language being correct grammar, when you make it a continuous pattern to pattern to use something you fail to remember that you are doing it.