The Role of Race and APAs.

 Incorporate a sociohistorical understanding of who you are today and how your *race* and *ethnicity* inform and influence your worldview and your overall human identity. How does *ethnicity* help inform your life experiences? How are race & ethnicity alike? How are they different? Explain what “race” and “ethnicity” are and how they inform your life experiences and social realities. Be sure to incorporate the paradigms of “social construction” and “essentialism.” If *race* and *ethnicity* do not influence, inform or affect your life, explain why and how they do not. Whether you are of Asian and Pacific Islander descent or not, as “Americans” or people who are part of American institutions, please make an attempt to discuss the laws outlined in the lectures and texts when talking about your own racialized experiences and ethnic identity. Why do terms like “Latino” versus “Hispanic” and “Oriental” versus “Asian Pacific American,” “Black American” versus “African American,” “Middle Eastern American” versus “Arab American” (versus “Persian American”) matter? What paradigms can be used to explain why names reflect history and social reality? After framing, illustrating and discussing the above, now incorporate the following into your essay: “What is means to be Asian Pacific American?” How have Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders been socially located within the structure of the U.S.? within the legal and constitutional framework of the U.S. How does a term like “Oriental” illustrate the “racialization” of Asian Pacific Islanders? Feel free to put down your own experience for some of the questions.