In his book, The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology, Peter Roberts talks about what type of criteria is commonly utilized today to identify human beings with. The ones he mainly mentions are: country, language, race, and sameness/difference. All of these intertwine and have a correlation with each other. In the following, I'll discuss three quotes that stood out to me the most from the reading.
"Language therefore establishes bonds between all communities of human beings but at the same time set up barriers between communities. Human beings, however, are not restricted to use of a single language and cross barriers" (Roberts 2).
In this first quote, Roberts basically says that people who speak the same language can be united by it, and those that don't can be separated by it. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that there aren't people who learn more than one language and break down the barriers between communities. For instance, when Puerto Ricans and individuals from other nationalities, move to another country and have to learn another language, at the beginning they tend to be tight knit with those that share the same one as them and separated from those that don't; until they start learning the new language and become a part of more than one community, breaking down the barriers. I think that when you're an immigrant you need to learn the language of the place you're going; and if you are one of the locals you have to be more accepting of those who try their best to fit in. This is something that everybody should always remember.
"The perception of sameness logically implies the perception of difference, which in turn implies that those who are perceived as different are treated differently" (Roberts 3).
You can't have sameness without difference. Indeed, those who are perceived as different are treated differently. Morally it's the wrong thing to do, but I've seen it happen. A good example can be the way- I emphasize NOT ALL- but some Puerto Ricans perceive immigrants that come to the island. When they don't find sameness with them, most of the time they get treated differently. Nonetheless, the same happens with immigrants almost everywhere including Puerto Ricans. Most of the time I think it's because people have very little acceptance for those who have different cultural identities and beliefs; because they don't want to be influenced by them and think they may be damaging to their own culture. However, I think one should treat those who you perceive the same, as those who you perceive different. That's how I try to be, equal with everybody.
"While behavior may in some objective way be the best criterion for judging sameness, it is the sense of sight (color/race) and sound (language) that provided the initial and usually most deep-seated conclusions about sameness and difference in identity" (Roberts 5).
I couldn't agree more with what he establishes here. We as individuals tend to make assessments of how similar or different a person is from us based on appearance and make conclusions based on that. But the reality is that it isn't a good way to judge sameness because not having similar appearances doesn't mean that you won't share the same type of behavior. In fact, I think it's something that we get influenced on by society from a very young age. They say that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but most of the time that's what we as people do. It's a defective quality to possess as a person, but it's one that's sadly present in many Puerto Ricans and individuals from other nationalities too. Personally, I tend to judge sameness and difference in identity based on behavior and personality instead of doing it by sight and sound, because humanity is composed by such a wide array of color, race and language that if that's the first thing you look at then you'll always notice the difference first instead of the sameness.
