Blog #7

I am white. I am a male. I am German and Italian. I am a Californian. I go to Marquette University. I am an Olympic distance triathlete and half marathoner. I am a Lutheran. My favorite food is key lime pie. I am an identical twin.  

All of those phrases define who I am. Some I can change others I cannot. I am proud of who I am, of the uniqueness of my being. Some people I am similar to, and others I am not. I share experiences with some and differ with others. There are people I agree with and disagree with.  

My identity is about who I am, the things I like to do and what makes me unique. I am very proud to be unique just the way I am. One of the quotes that I heard a few weeks ago was that "God made you just the way you are, there is nothing to be ashamed of."  That quote really sums up what it identity is: the uniqueness of one self. In talking with some of my friends they have argued that race or ethnicity should not matter in our society. I think it does matter, we need to celebrate our differences, not look past or around differences. We are all human and mostly alike but we are very different at the same time. 

I am part of the STAR program here at Marquette where today (Monday Nov 15) we discussed bigotry and some of the experiences that we have faced. The woman sitting next to me was sharing how she sometimes felt left out and how if doesn’t wear a Marquette sweatshirt people around here may not think that she is a student here, simply because she is black.  I didn’t share those same experiences with race but still have had questions on whether I fit into the Marquette community because I am not a Catholic.  I have been questioning how Marquette's and my identity interact and support each other.  

While I was on the Journal Sentinel's website reading about the Marquette basketball game on Friday I was very disturbed about a comment I saw posted on the discussion board for the game. It is in its entirety as follows.  

I'll start watching Marquette men's basketball again when the racial makeup is more representative of the school's racial enrollment. 

The positive side of me wants to believe that the author of this post wants Marquette to diversify its racial makeup but, unfortunately that is not the case. This really shocked me that someone would factor in race into the equation of basketball. I really don’t care who's on the team, they are Marquette students who deserve to be cheered on. We should be excited that our team can play basketball well and go to school here  at the same time. Marquette is our identity and race, religion, sexual orientation and gender should not matter.