Otherness, Creative Essay Example

In “Being an Other”, Melissa Algranati claims that she is “a member of the most underrepresented group in the country, the ‘others.’” As a half Puerto Rican, half Egyptian Jew, her racial classification is not described by any standardized racial category; Algranati therefore believes that she belongs to one of the most underrepresented groups in the country because her biracial identity is not considered to be a part of any racial group. Throughout the story, she distinguishes the difference between the concept of race and ethnicity. Even her mother and father, who are full Puerto Rican and full Egyptian respectively do not appear to have the racial characteristics that usually identify these groups. Nonetheless, her mixed ethnicity has contributed to the way Algranati was raised and lived her life; she therefore believes it is more important to treat one another based on personal merit rather than racial identity and we shouldn’t even be able to collect this information because it works against equality by creating stereotypes.

Melissa Algranti begins her essay by describing how people see her externally. Although she personally identified as being half Puerto Rican and half Egyptian Jewish, people believed she belong to other ethnic backgrounds that she was not related to. She is particularly annoyed at the fact that people have tried to typecast her at all; in the United States there are many people of mixed racial backgrounds who were raised in a mixture of their two parents’ cultures. While she was physically half Puerto Rican and half Egyptian, she felt that her actual ethnic identity was a combination of the two that created a unique experience from one that either of the cultures had. This is what it truly means to be an “other”.

Algranti continues by describing the lives that both her father and mother had before they met and how their own ethnic and racial identities were connected. Her father, Jacques Algranti was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where he was a racial minority due to his Jewish heritage. Although he was a member of the upper middle class and lived comfortably during his time there, he was forced to leave the country as a direct consequence of the Egyptian-Israeli conflict. The fact that her father was Jewish in a predominantly Arabic country is an excellent example of “otherness” even at this level; even though Algranti’s father was full Egyptian, his Jewish heritage forced the country to view him as having a different race and heritage. As a consequence, he was forced to leave his home.

Meanwhile, Algranti’s mother came from Maniti, Puerto Rico and came the United States because her grandfather wanted to make the move. The concept of race and identity appears here once again because although Algranti’s mother is racially considered Puerto Rican, she was a “white Hispanic” who had blonde hair and blue eyes. In the United States, a majority of people would be unable to identify her as Hispanic due to these traits and like Algranti, would be confused for many different ethnic groups. Once Algranti’s mother learned perfect English, this distinction became even more difficult.

When Algranti’s mother and father met and then became married, the boundaries that were defined by ethnicity became very unclear. They were very liberal and accepting of each other’s backgrounds, and her mother became fascinated with Judiasm and decided to convert to the religion. As a consequence, when Melissa Algranati was born, she was very much born into a mixture of both the Puerto Rican and Egyptian Jewish worlds and did not question her heritage until she was asked to identify her race on a test. While her racial characteristics make her appear white, and she is sometimes confused as Italian, her ethnic heritage is far different than what her physical appearance indicates.

Algranati organizes her essay in a way that demonstrates the overlapping ideas of race and ethnicity in the text on several levels. Although she introduces the story with the concept that the blurred lines between race and ethnicity have impacted her personally because she doesn’t fit into any of the defined categories, she continues by telling us about her mother and father’s heritage and physical characteristics and how they could also be considered “others” in their own way. Overall, she argues that in a country that embraces diversity to this extent, we should not be concerned with categorizing ourselves on the basis of race. Rather, we should focus on the person as a whole and what they can bring to our society.

In conclusion, it is difficult to determine a real difference between ethnicity and race in many cases. In diverse countries such as the United States, many individuals are mixed and considered “others”. Since this number is growing significantly, it is important that we demonstrate we value these people by making them feel accepted rather than outsiders. As Melissa Algranati argues, we should stop asking people questions about their race for demographic purposes. People are people and race should not impact any other factors that influence quality of live. The sooner we stop asking this question, the sooner that true equality will be achieved.

Works Cited

Algranati, Melissa. “Being an Other”. Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1996.