Personal Narrative: A Career As A Racist

Maya Angelou once said, “Your ancestors took the lash, the branding iron, humiliations and oppression because one day they believed you would come along to flesh out the dream.” I am a black woman who isn’t tragically cursed by the color of my skin but privileged to to understand the trials of my ancestors. Within the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Hurston, and Alice Walker, I have learned that as a black woman I must never let my creative mind go to waste because of the great oppression my ancestors have faced. Coming to Spelman has made me go through many challenges and has helped me to think outside of the box. With just reading the works of these creative black women and going in depth of these works has taught me lessons of how to appreciate my ancestry, to continue the dream, and never be afraid to take that jump with the knowledge that I am given.

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. When I was on my reservation I felt like I had to act “Navajo” and when I was not on the reservation I had to try to blend in and not act “too native” . This situation was stressful because I was internally battling with myself. I did not want to make others uncomfortable by being “too native” or “too white” so I would change how I acted

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. I say this because of what is portrayed in the media, the people I have been raised with, and racism itself in the black community. Keep in mind that this is from my own personal experiences and perspective so everything I say is just applies from my point of

I identify as Black. Growing up as a minority in America has shaped my identity by making me a creative, hard working, and understanding individual. By being Black in America I realized that there is this stigma that Black kids can’t excel in certain areas of education because the majority of our neighborhood and public schools lack the proper resources for us to do so. While this stigma holds truth, I refuse to let this stigma handicap me. Growing up with less resources allowed me to be creative. If there was something I did not have I was sure that I could create an equivalent to what I did not have by using materials that I did have.

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. However, my ethnic identity as an Italian American also influences how I live when it comes to my religion, and how my religion affects my life alongside my ethnicity. I will expand on this issue on how I express my ethnic and religious identity in regards to each other.

"At least you like coffee, I'm stuck with tea." The younger girl paused to think. "Hey, I'm going to make a cup of tea, want coffee?" Scott said yes and gave his thanks whilst Chloe walked into the kitchen. "I wish we lived close to each other. The only times we see each other in real life is at conventions and sometimes when the Late Night Crew get together. I miss you sometimes. Skype can only do so much, you know?" The kettle had boiled and so the young girl began to make the coffee. "We had to write about our perfect partner in a French lesson once. I wrote about you and the other girls teased me for being faithful. 'You were meant to write about your perfect partner, not

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.

I am a free African American, but in a since I am not free. I am not a free person because I am not allowed to vote or speak out for myself and my country where I live in. I want to have rights, but I am not allowed to due to some circumstances. Even though I am a free African American, people are saying that there is no proof that I am a free African American. Also, when a white American captures me, I do not have proof that I was a free African American, and I will be sent into slavery. When they catch me, it is not fair to take me into slavery because I am a free African American. I also want to have the right to vote and have other privileges that white people have. Due to the fact that white people think that we are some cruel human being,

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.

Right now I am on a plane headed to Europe. With me are Jack Hileman,John Shleinz,Grant Williams,Nathan Jolly,and David Beilin. We are almost over the Amazon,when the plane begins to shake then fall. Grant screamed, “What are we going to do?” Nathan shouted in response, “I don’t know you tell me wise guy.” I was thinking to myself that we were going to die. John comes over to me with a floatation device. John was resourceful like that. To save ourselves we all decided to jump out of the plane. When we were out of the plane we decided to swim to the Amazon for safety.

Growing up in a family where my mom was a doctor and my dad was a musician, I was exposed to a lots of things in my life. For example I was able to see Broadway plays and and go on family trips to Disney every year in the winter. A lot of people would say I was very fortunate to be one of the family where I knew both my parents and they did there best to give me a lot of life experiences. But me being an African-American male it seems like I not supposed to how do experiences, I was supposed to not know my father not to be able to go on these trips with my family. It came to appoint where ever African-American in my peer group what tell me I 'm less black than they are because of the experiences I have, the way I dress, and the way to talk.

Hello, I’m twenty two years old and I’m an African-American female. My major is Business Administration and I’m currently not a member of any sports teams, but In high school I was on the national honors society I have two social networking sites which are Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, I 'm also an older sibling to my two younger

Throughout my high school career, I have met countless people who have greatly impacted my life. I have made and lost friends, but I have learned something from each and every person I have met. Moreover, I have become a strong, independent young woman due to the fact that I have grown and learned from each and every situation that I have been through. Even though I have met several people and have an abundance of friends, there was always one person who stuck out the most to me. In my sophomore year of high school, I met a boy who I grew undeniably fond of. He was a freshman at the time and we had developed a close friendship. He had become a person I could confide in, and he ended up being one of my best friends. With the mutual interest and feelings that we had developed for each other, we wanted to begin a relationship, but there was one problem; my father.

It still remains fresh in my memory that when I was still in my junior high school, one day my classmates and I were walking on our way home after school, around the corner of the street appeared a black man whom was very rare to see in my hometown. Although my parents had taught me that it was very impolite to stare at other for a long time, however, I still slowed down my footstep and could not help glancing at the black man a few more times with my classmates who is behaving more unbridled, laughing out loud teasingly and talking in a very low voice. At that time I did not know if that could be counted as racial discrimination of not because we certainly had never had the idea that black man is inferior to us, instead, we just thought the black man was so different to us. However, if some people do that to me, I would definitely be annoyed a little. Later, when I was admitted by a high school in the city I live, I finally had the chance to meet some foreign teachers and international friends with whom I have maintained very good relationships. More than a few of them have told me that they feel “not comfortable ” when some Chinese people look at them up and down and talk of them behind their backs. Foreigners and Chinese are of the different races, although almost all Chinese people as far as I know are

experiences, as a black female who went to a predominantly white private school and an educational system such as the University of Cape Town, I have personally dealt with the feeling of suffocation and questioning around my race. In school, through the system, we are taught to act and identify like white people, knowing very well that how both races lead very different lifestyles culturally. Suffocating in the sense that, culturally speaking, we as black bodies had to compromise our culture and traditions to fit the western culture, and would get ridiculed or punished, for example wearing an afro would be deemed punishable according to my school’s hair policy, for being expressive about who we were authentically. As mentioned before, the choice