overlapping material in 3 classes!

I have really begun to realize, and enjoy, the fact that materials we have been covering in three of my classes this semester are overlapping. The three classes are Family Science, Intro. to Women and Gender and Intro. to Anthropology. The biggest similarity lately has been talking about race.

We watched a film in anthropology last week called "Understanding Race." The film was split into sections saying what race "is." Race is conflict. Race is history. Race is racism. Race is convenient. Race is engrained. Race is funny. Race is taboo. Race is extraordinary. Race is poetry. Those were all of the topics and they all had great points, stories and interviews. It showed that race is definitly a socially constructed term, as we have been discussing in our Family Science class. The term "race" truly does encompass a lot of characteristics.

On Tuesday, in class, we discussed some statistics that were divided by race such as graduation rate, poverty, and annual income. We also discussed how they may not be completely accurate because the specified races, African American, Asian American and Latino in particular, encompass so many different countries and traditions that are not even close! But yet they lump them all together for census and statistics sake. Then, just yesterday in my intro. to women and gender class we had just finished discussing a reading on classism and then our teacher brought up some slides with basically the exact information we had gone over in family science: statistics on graduation rates, annual income, etc. based on race - which were lumped together into the categories of African American, Asian American, Hispanic, etc. I was so tempted to raise my hand and make a comment on how those "races" encompass so many different kind of people, but it was right at the end of class so I held back. Race isn't the only topic that has overlapped in these three classes but it is currently the most relevant.

All this discussion about race has made me more conscious of it in my own life. I have been more aware lately of how our campus is overwhelmingly white and I have been aware of how I act and how I feel when people of another race or skin color are around. For once I am actually learning and applying something in college...just kidding:) But, really, I am so glad that these classes are all overlapping and they are overlapping in topics that I can actually relate to and apply to my life.