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I’am the fourth child on my mother’s side and the second on my father’s side. I have a two sisters and three brothers. Conversely, My position in my family is the caretaker. Consequently, being the caretaker in my family, I find myself carrying the bulk of my family emotional stress. I identify as African-American female.
I grew up in a small town in Mississippi in a neighborhood about a five-minute walk from the Mississippi River. I spent the majority of my younger years growing up within this southern bubble. This place that I still call home and my experiences here helped to create the person that I am today. In my neighborhood in Greenville, MS we didn’t have much to do but staying out of trouble was the motive. Even when thinking of the activities to do they were pretty limited but that’s what caused for us to become creative.
Yes. I graduated from the Texans Can Academy, an alternative high school for at-risk students. My level of preparation upon graduation was subpar. Since college was never part of my plans I never took an SAT or ACT. Throughout high school I was learning a foreign language and adapting to a new culture all while learning the required material in grade school.
America how could you let this happen? A man whose translation for "Make America great again" is "Make America white again" for a country that was solely built on the hardwork of immigrants and the labor of black people. (I won't even be surprised if kkk gets back in action) and can we not even get started on the laws this man has promised to pass? Yes realistically he can't fulfill them all but to have a president that thinks in such a myopic manner is the scariest sh*t ever (sorry I can't cuss in full my mother follows me on social media) I wasn't even following the campaigns at first because I thought they were basically asking you jump off a bridge or jump in front of trailer, but atleast with Hillary there was going to be peace of mind.
In the past I have struggled with my biracial identity. As a child I was confused about which community I belonged in because I am a mix of Navajo and Caucasian. As I got older, I began to question myself and who I was. I felt like I did not belong to either the Native or Caucasian community because in both groups I felt like someone else. I felt as if I had to live two lives that were completely separated.
As a member of a working class community, my life has been a struggle between resources and opportunities available for me. Having sparse resources has lead me to the constant push of working towards the things I’ve achieved. Social identities have become a guidance for my future goals and abilities. Being working class Latina, raised in a Catholic family has created many barriers and pathways into the future I wish to hold. Furthermore, taking all the social identities I have grew into have become the bases for my educational goals and identity.
Challenges are events that are used to change you for the better should you choose it accept it. The challenges I have faced wasn’t a matter of choice but of something that I have no control over. Some people will tell you it’s a burden, some say it’s an entitlement or free ride. Science says it’s just having a high amount of melatonin due to geographical location for survival. To me though, being black probably one of the biggest challenges a human can have in America at least I find it terribly perplexing.
Remember a time when I first discovered that the world was stranger as I was a baby hearing noises and seeing objects for the very first time. As a child growing up I began to understand the use of the noise and the functions of the objects. I notice the world was strange by the different colors and patterns while looking outside. The world seems strange with the different races, height, and sizes of the different race. It 's seem strange that people of different races spoke and wrote in different languages.
I think that this activity gave me the extra push I needed because over Thanksgiving break I spoke up to one of my family members for the first time ever when they said something negative about Black people. I know that I still have an incredible amount of progress to make, and that it is something that I should have been doing all along, but I am still glad that I finally made a step in the right direction. In addition to continuing to speak up against people who are participating in racism in my presence I also need to continue to be aware of current events in the future. Every once in a while we would have a discussion in class about what’s been going on in the media, and almost half of the time I was not aware of what was going on until somebody brought it up in class.
Administrator and teachers view their role as exclusively teaching the students about academics and feel that speaking up about racial tension as “political” and they would rather stay calm and avoid controversial topics (Hardie, 2013). The school understands there’s racial tension, but they rather stay out of the situation to protect their selves and their character. Sweeping racial problems under the rug prolongs racism. The earlier the problem of racism’s identified and addressed, the quicker racism will reside.
Growing up there were many time where things would happen but I was too young to realize it or even know what was happening. As time went passed thing got better and less noticeable but that is when things normally take a turn for the worse. But most people when looking at me would say he is African American but in reality yes I am partly African American
I have blond hair and pale skin. On the color wheel, my father is a rich mocha, my sister is a warm copper, and my mother is a perfectly tanned caramel; I am somewhere between cream and eggshell on the opposite end of the spectrum. Being stereotypically white can be difficult when you’re African American. The beginning of high school was when I first began to feel that my fair complexion hid my true identity.
The negative treatment and pain I received as a black girl, and still into my adulthood, it amazes me how I'm still standing tall and strong. It amazes me how people have tried to break me, even my own kind, but I'm still here. Truth is I gotta to have thick skin and protect myself, because I got no choice. If I don't... who will? And that is the everyday life of living as a black woman.
Although I, my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and previous generations were born in the United States; being an involuntary immigrant is something that has always crossed my mind since I was a young child. I always wondered what life would be like now if our ancestors were never taken from our home and brought to “America”, but what African American hasn’t. Growing up a young African American female with sickle cell anemia I’ve encountered several socio-cultural dynamic situations. As a child, my parents somewhat sheltered me from the reality and negativity of the world, partly because I would be too young to understand, and because they wanted me to make my own decisions. I went to an elementary school that was predominantly black,
The world is filled with people, and like snowflakes, each person is not the same as another. Each person identifies with different aspects of their lives to create their own personal identities. I personally identify with my Italian side of my family to help form who I am today. I have found myself connecting with this side more so than the other parts of my identity. It affects how I live my life by becoming the center to the culture surrounding me.