Blaxicans - Grade: A- A Mexican Ruling By Richard Rodriguez PDF

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Analytical essay on "Blaxicans"...

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The claim in ‘Blaxicans’ by Richard Rodriguez is that a ethnic title such as Mexican, Chinese, etc, is purely a title given to by others and changes routinely; however, according to Rodrigues, culture plays a bigger role on your own personal identity than ethnicity or race. On line 213 he states, “ I come to you as a man of many cultures. I come to you as Chinese.” This is not supposed to show an exaggeration but instead he is following the certain demands that it takes to be considered Chinese in the regards of the title or “race.” Rodriguez explains how he does live in a place surrounded by others who distinguish themselves as Chinese, how he eats food, the described culture, and even lives in a proclaimed Chinese city. Therefore it would be proper for him to self-title himself as Chinese. Rodriguez also mentions how everyone has the choice to actually choose their ethnicity based off of how they act, the things they value and like to do. He also talks about label and how effective they really are when it comes to identifying a certain group of people in society. Rodriguez indicates that he does not believe in labels. He doesn't believe in the term Hispanic that is used to label people from latin roots because it is a term American made up to try and describe a certain group of people. The potency in the author’s rhetoric is very persuasive. To a standard reader his form of irony may be off putting although, once looked into such as the example where Rodriguez states, “I was reinvented by president Nixon.” This is his way of inducing the reader to agree with him. The sentence is not meant to be taken seriously but rather he uses it to his advantage by showing how they both contradict each other. In addition to his use of irony Rodriguez also uses anecdotes to prove his point. In the short story within his essay a girl refers to herself as ‘Blaxican’ because, “Her mother was Mexican and her father was African.” Just as his previous way of reveal how he was ‘reinvented’ by Nixon, this little girl is also showing how unstable titles are by giving herself a new one such as ‘Blaxican.’ Overall the author has many ways to influence the reader to see his view without addressing it directly, using verbal irony and anecdotes as examples of such ways in effective uses. Rodriguez uses anecdote to explain the background of his argument and real life situations. He also uses sources that really exemplify that the terms society uses to label groups of people are made up and we should not let ourselves be labeled by others....