Can individuals successfully challenge ethnic labels/categories society imposes?
Race, ethnicity, and class are categories people use to make sense of differences. It’s a human tendency to categorize; the process helps make a complicated world a little simpler. Sometimes compartmentalizing is useful, but just as often it’s misleading. All human beings have multifaceted identities that cannot be quantified simplistically. Time and again, in sports, politics, arts and on the world stage, determined individuals beat the odds, proving that category is not destiny. To me, this is the most beautiful aspect of America: one’s destiny is not carved from either categorization or the circumstances one is born into. President Obama’s inspiring, largely unpredicted rise to America’s highest office supports this. Our ancestors came to America because it is the land of opportunity, where anything is possible. This is still true. Bracketing people based on appearance has led to isolation and reduced opportunities, and more devastatingly, holocausts and eugenics. If President Obama
