Chaeeun Jung

2
nd
hour
5/15/2014
Do not judge people by appearance
What are you? a question some mixed race people hears daily. The novel What Are
You? by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins, is based on experiences mixed-race people have gone through.
These voices from mixed-people explore issues and topics such as dating, marriage,
discrimination, racism, families, prejudice, and insight that come from being mixed-race. In the
book, people who interact with someone else of a mixed race are often are biased towards them
because of their appearance. Some people would think being mixed-race is unique and special.
However, the book shows that most mixed-people have trouble with their race and treatment
they get. People should not judge and treat people by their appearance because their
appearance does not determine who s/he is.
When people of different raced get married they are often faced with challenges. Their
parents do not support their marriage and often reject them. For example, Karena Acree-Pez is
a 24 years old girl who had Mexican-American mother and European-American father. She said,
she and her family were being very explicitly rejected by my fathers family (Gaskins 109). She
felt miserable and uncomfortable with her cousins because when they have family gatherings,
her cousins didnt talk or speak to her, ignored her, and her grandmother preferred other
cousins who werent mixed (Gaskins 109). Even some mixed peoples families reject them,
ignore them, and do not allow them into their family, how can people who have never had a
relationship with them treat them fairly and have no prejudice toward them?
When someone is dating with a person with a different race, people always have
comments toward them. Even though they do not know them, they already prejudice about each
race so they always make assumptions about international dating or intermarriage. In the page
221, Gaskins shows the example of twenty years old girl named Monina Diaz. Monina has
African-American mother and Puerto Rican dad. Monina says, There are a whole bunch of
issues around dating that multiracial individuals deal with. Monina dated with many different
race boys. She says, When I date a white guy, people look at me like, She doesnt want to be
black, she thinks shes passing. If I date a black guy, from the black community I get, Shes
being true, she knows who she is. And if I date a Hispanic guy, its like, Shes learning more
that way. If I date an Asian guy, its like, Whats wrong with her? She just wants to forsake
everyone. Whatever partner I choose says something. It is not true that people who have same
the nationality are same. People know that everyone is different but people always are biases
about each race. Therefore, people already have images of each ethnicity.
In conclusion, Pearl Fuyo Gaskinss theme is people should not have prejudices toward
mixed ethnicity people. Gaskins shows the troubles and painfulness that mixed race people face
to. Many people in this novel feel uncomfortable and annoying with other peoples treatment as
staring. A very important lesson taught to all is doing not have stereotypes toward everyone and
do not treat people by their appearance.