Reflective Essay: Internalized Subordination

979 Words4 Pages

All my life I have never thought that the way that I was raised could be classified as internalized subordination. The things my mom had taught me, or the way I was to act around a certain group of people, or even how to talk to a police officer if I was ever to get stopped by one. But ever since I learned about internalized subordination, I realized that the way I was raised impacted my life in a way where I was afraid of white people.
This specific incident happened when I was 9 years old, not even a teenager yet. My mom had told me to stop doing my homework and come downstairs so I could watch the news to see the injustice that had occurred. I watched the news, wondering why my mom was making me watch something about somebody getting shot …show more content…

Police brutality has always been a strong topic in my household because we are worried about it happening to one of us or any other race. All in all it is a sad thing that happens a lot to African Americans or Latinos. But my view on white people has had a 360 degrees flip. I don’t think of white people as rude, or murderers, or all white people hate black people because that’s just not right. I could still have my worries, but that doesn’t mean that all white people will hurt …show more content…

Sadly enough, it has changed over the years, to where I am afraid or very cautious about black people walking down the street doing drugs or talking like they are hard. That has probably started to happen because of the city I live in which is Oakland, California. That town is known for especially in East Oakland, for shootings between African Americans, gangs, and drug dealing on the streets. Now I’m not saying that I hate black people, I’m just saying that sometimes us African Americans can get really violent and out of