African American Family Interview Paper

I am an African American female whom is a descendent from the African Slave and a native American refugee. My culture runs deep in my veins and I am a product of the strength of my mother and father. While growing up I understood we were on the poverty line. My family lived in a small home with 3 bedrooms and occupied 7 people. I grew up in a small southeast Georgian town named Statesboro. You may know of Statesboro if you listen to the Blues. A famous blues man by the name of Blind Willie Mctell wrote a song called Statesboro blues about his beloved home town. Statesboro is a small town where the color lines are divided. Although things have changed along the years, some tension still exist.

Values: The chapter highlights that there is not one uniform African American community, rather a collection of diverse communities within the population and culture, thus there is not a single set of value systems, however there are main reoccurring themes that represent the group’s values, being a high importance of family – including immediate, extended and close friends, tradition and respect for elders, racial and ethic identity, religion and spirituality and the Importance of education. These African American value systems “have been shaped by a history of people formed out of many African peoples forced to become unified under the societal devaluation represented by slavery, discrimination, and prejudice while at the same time wooed

This plays out to mean that whatever the elder says is to be done and never talk back or talk disrespectfully to them. For example, when the fifteen year old son has vacuumed the living room, but grandmother comes home late from a bad night at bingo and says it is not done. He is to simply do it again without telling her that he has already done it or that someone else made the mess after he vacuumed. No matter the time or the place or the circumstances, elders are to be respected in every way. Hierarchy in the home is confusing to the children when the mother and grandmother are at odds regarding a subject.

There are many open wounds in the African-American community that have not healed what so ever. Disintegration of family structures in the African-American community has been a persistent problem for far too long. High out of wedlock birth rates, absent fathers, and the lack of a family support network for many young African-Americans have led to serious problems in America's urban areas. The persistence of serious social problems in inner-city areas has led to a tragic perpetuation of racial prejudice as well. African Americans still face a litany of problems in the 21st century today. Some of those problems consist of, unemployment, education, police brutality, single parent households, drugs, gang violence, and the high rate of incarceration

Over the last few years, I have come to get to know my interviewee. She is a really good friend of mine, and her name is Maddie Anderton. I have learned a lot about her over the years and where she came from. She moved here from Alabama in 2005. I chose to interview her, because she is always talking about Alabama and how much she wishes she could go back.

This type of interview may help to restore their sense of well being by focusing on all events of the person’s life whether they were good or

Regardless of the amount of time they have been in one’s life, we use them as a comparison tool to use for our own lives. For instance, if a young man sees his father, grandfather, or even a family friend being chivalrous and gallant towards others in any way, shape, or form. More than likely, that same modest child will grow up to be as analogous to them as he can. In this circumstance, the once juvenile adolescent, has grown up to be the gentleman that his father or grandfather once was. This is why having a mentor to base your life off of is such an essential footstep in becoming successful.

Or a specific family member - Mrs. Berrand answered that families are very important to her, and have played a major impact on the way she grew up and become as an adult. She did not raised in a wealthy family. But her dad, worked very hard provides bread on the table. Mom used to taking care of the household activities; I never seen mom being mad one day. My brothers and I never had the opportunity to have any toy during Christmas time, since we were living on a tight budget.

I interviewed my mom about the “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” because I thought she would find interest in the book. My mom, Jodi is a mental health therapist for Child and Adolescent. I interviewed my mom Sunday, November 13th at 9:00 that morning. The interview took about 25 minutes because my mom took much thought before answering the questions. I made 13 questions that are related to the book to ask her.

My first interviewee was my sister Alejandra and my second interviewee was a friend name Fernando. Alejandra is currently a senior at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) studying social work and child development and Fernando is a junior studying Latin American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). They both are undocumented students who are trying to pursue a higher education. The difference between Fernando and Alejandra is that they both came to the U.S. at a different age. Fernando was aware of the dangers, he remembers what he went through and he knows what he was sacrificing.

For my Erik Erikson interview, I interviewed James Strobl. James is my grandfather, he is 79 years old and is retired in Lawrence, Ks and Yuma, Az. My grandfather is originally from Red Cloud, Nebraska and went to college at University of Nebraska-Omaha. James was a Sergeant in the US army from 1960-1962. He loves watching old John Wayne cowboy movies, eating chocolate chip cookies, and spending time with his family.

I want to ask them a series of questions involving their journeys and experiences arriving in Los Angeles and their job working experiences/accounts in factories. I will ask them ( Questions of coming to America)- What was your journey like to the US? Why did you decide to settle in Los Angeles? Besides economic opportunities, what other motives did you have to reach the US?

The person I interviewed is the campus Diversity Recruiter Candace Villanueva. She loves working in higher education. I enjoy helping students reach their academics and life goals. Her passion is working with gifted students. She is capable of sharing her achieve strength with these students by pushing them further.

I believe that every family has their own roots, essence, uniqueness, beliefs and thoughts, some families have both parents, some just the mother, just the father, two mothers or two fathers, they might have an only child or two, or maybe 5 or even 10, therefore, those children start learning all these things from their family and surroundings, they ask questions, they imitate each other’s actions and are constantly learning and trying to catch as much information and experiences as possible. Children are growing fast, their parents are their role models, they learn mostly from them; parents have the tremendous job of forming good citizens that provide to society, healthy and happy beings that keep growing as humans in every stage of their

but I was always taught to be thankful of the things that I had and to not be so selfish. Having two other siblings helped me prevent the want of being selfish. I do not know what I would do without my family. My family is very inspiring because they show me all aspects on how I should live my life through their experiences like education, parenting, and work ethic.