Perspectives of Race/Age

1) It was hard for me to be in lecture Wednesday. The material was tough that is. The idea of mixed race is something that my family (please keep this private y'all!) is not exactly supportive of. There is a very huge pressure on everyone to marry within the race... to keep it "pure." Only recently have I begun to shed this idea of a pure race, although I find myself bouncing back to it sometimes. And the only reason I am shedding myself of it too is because I am dating someone who is not Armenian. And it was thee hardest thing to allow myself to do. But I'm slowly letting that "ideal" idea of marrying an Armenian slip away. I still struggle with it though, not sure if I'm doing the right thing. So it was interesting during lecture when Aya was emphasizing the breakdown of the word "pure" and a pure race, although she was using it to allude to blacks vs. whites.

I guess I still struggle with it though, because there are perks to marrying within your race--you're able to relate to that person immediately in many ways someone else could not, you understand each other's struggles better, your families can communicate if they do not speak English.... yea, so I'm torn. Anyway.

2) Another topic that struck me was the idea of Trans-racial Adoption. How would a white baby feel growing up in a black family? How would a black baby feel growing up in a white family? Taking it to a different issue.... how would a heterosexual baby feel growing up in a homosexual family? I ask these questions because birth is such a natural and pure thing. And for it to be decided "unnaturally" who the baby goes to, it seems like that may cause some problems when it comes to different race babies going to different race families and such. I have a Korean friend who was adopted by a white family. His biological sister was also adopted by that same family. And they do not have any problems, but maybe because they had each other? I personally feel like when growing up, I would begin to recognize differences and feel like I don't belong to the family I was put in. I would imagine a lot of insecurities would arise. Yet, from the other perspective, those adults who are adopting simply want to adopt for who knows what reason (there are many) and probably with great intentions. So what do you do? The whole area of adoption is another topic that I have very mixed feelings about.

3) The age gap is yet another topic I felt unsure of. There is the notion that children should listen to their parents, obey them. And this seemed to be put down in class. But I kind of disagree. If you don't follow any ground rules growing up, how exactly do you grow up? Aya didn't specify a single age when she was lecturing on this, but the picture that said children obey your parents, and the other one that said father knows best, struck me as odd. Maybe father knows best is controversial or sexist because why doesn't mother know best? But as far as growing up, who knows best? Certainly not the child. I don't think so at least. I can't imagine growing up and not obeying my parents, eating whatever I wanted, wearing whatever I wanted, being lazy whenever I wanted. I'd really like to hear other opinions on this if y'all want to share. Maybe in the teenage years and on, adolescents should have more flexibility because they are maturing into adults and need to define themselves, but I still think parent knows best.... ?

I'm sorry if my opinions seem harsh, obviously I'm still developing some of them. I guess parents don't know best if I am going against them and dating a non-Armenian? I still have some thinking to do :)