Personal Narrative: My Stereotypes Of Being American

Heaved I ever experience racism? How did it make me feel? Yes, I have experience racism. It was not the best feeling ever it made me feel like crap. It’s funny how people make you feel if you’re a different race. I think I will always feel bad when I get judged by who I am and my culture

I grew up in a two-parent household with my parents being married before they had children. My father has always been the one that provides finically, while my mother was the one who took care of my siblings and I throughout my childhood. Being that both of my parents were born in Mexico, I consider myself Mexican American. I am proud to be Mexican American. Culture plays a huge role in shaping your identity. A person’s beliefs and morals are made up by culture and remain throughout your entire life. Culture is what made you the person you are today and also determines who or what you choose to associate yourself with. My identity would not exist if it were not for my own culture and the values I have carried from it along the years.

Being a child of immigrant parents is not easy. You are constantly living in the fear that one day you’ll wake up and you parents won’t be there with you anymore. Specially now that we have a new president, things are getting more challenging. But don’t get me wrong, I live a happy life. I am proud to call myself a Latina. Being a child of immigrant parents has taught me so much. For example, being able to work hard for what you want. At school, I always strive to get A’s. My parent’s have taught me to never settle for anything less than a B. They know that in order for me to go to college and be successful, I not only have to get good grades but work hard to get there. I love a good challenge. Sometimes it’s not about the obstacles you face,

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s truly sad how ignorance is the main thing driving this inequality that blacks have to face. In one of your most famous speeches, “I Have a Dream” I realized that you addressed many important issues. One being that people still look at African Americans as lost causes. Secondly, how protesting can make a huge difference. Lastly, Blacks won 't be satisfied until a black person isn’t a victim of police brutality.

My parents are both immigrants from Haiti. I was born in America. Growing up, my parents spoke Creole, the national language of Haiti, and English at home. As I got older my resistence to speak their native tongue began to grow. I don’t know why I began to reject the language as my own. Maybe it was because kids with immigrant parents, especially Haitian kids, used to get a lot of flak from the other kids at school. Maybe it was because i couldn’t fully relate to the kids who came from Haiti and spoke to me in the language about things in the country I knew nothing about. Maybe it was because of the inevitable switch, back and forth from Creole to English, due to my lack of the proper vocabulary to speak fluently. Maybe, it was even because

I am not white, but I am not Mexican either. I am, however, a first generation Mexican American with parents from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Perhaps I do not know what it is like to cross the border that refrains me from being Mexican, or the color of my skin that refrains me from being white, but my own personal experiences make me the Mexican American that I am today.

Jackie Robinson is best known for the courageous role he played in the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947. In fact, Jackie Robinson exhibited courage and humanitarianism on many fronts overcoming unforeseen barriers and challenges both on and off the field. What obstacles have you overcome that speak to what others can learn from studying the life of Jackie Robinson?

The “hood” is often what downtown, Elizabeth NJ is labeled as. Children like me are doubted as many people seem to believe we will just become another statistic. My background has motivated to strive for success, proving those with agnosticism wrong. Seeing bodies strung out on the corner or laying on the sidewalk is a part of my everyday life. I’m not ashamed of where I come from as it has made me who I am today. Every day I wake up with a goal set in mind to become a success but not just for myself but my community. Sure we are not the ideal neighborhood seen in movies but together we are family that can achieve greatness.

I had the grand honor of being born into a culturally diverse family. Although Dominican culture dominates our customs, we are 25% Middle Eastern from Lebanon, and 25% Spanish from Barcelona, Spain.The cultures have all laced into each other in such a way that I find it utterly ordinary to eat Arabic food while listening to Dominican music while serving Spanish desserts. My parents came to America at around the age that I am now, met each other, and my mom had my first sister at 18 while my father was 22. My mom went back to high school to finish her GED while my father enrolled in an institution that he never got around to finishing because his english was not well. My parents never got the opportunity to further their education because they had my sisters and I at such an early age. My parents have worked since the day they stepped foot in New York precisely so that I could get the prestigious education that they had always longed for. My parents separated when I was eight years old and my father was never really around after; as a

What does it mean to be an American today? Or rather, what does being an American entail? Does that pertain to a certain individual’s perspective? Or is Americanism defined through a collective consciousness projected around the world? Over the course of time, Americans have gone through various embodiments of who they are, without loosing the essence of what they represent. In the 1800’s, America was known to be the state of slaveholders, a country represented by “whiteness” and “white elites.” In 1965, African Americans were allowed the right to vote. In 2004, the U.S State of Massachusetts allowed for same sex couples to be married. As of 2015, 43.3 million people in the United States are considered to be immigrants. Throughout the centuries,

I am of Hispanic descent, but since I live in the United States, I have lost touch with my Hispanic roots. I don’t know Spanish and I hate spicy food. I might look Hispanic, but I don’t associate with the many stereotypes that come with associating myself as a Hispanic. I remember the first time visited my family in Mexico. I have heard many ugly stereotypes about Hispanics and I was not very excited to go. But since I was just a little kid, I had no other choice but to face my fears. Ever since that trip I have broadened my horizons and became less ignorant towards my family’s culture.

Today I feel more like a Mexican than anything else even though I was born in the united states. I may have papers and be American but hearing other ethnicities call my people immigrants and illegal makes me feel more like an immigrant myself. I feel this way because although I am considered an American I would much rather stand by my people and my culture. I would label myself as a Mexican-American, Latina, person of color, and as a minority.

All first generation experiences in America have common grounds but have some differences. From the first Americans in the 1700s till current immigrants, which included the Irish, Germans, Africans, Chinese, Scandinavians, Hispanics, South Americans, etc; They all had to adjust to American culture, adjust to the way of life, and struggled financially and emotionally. Some improved their lives in society while others had it terrible. I can sort of relate to the emotional and financial pain like most immigrants, especially of my age. I’ve had the good times and the bad, but I’ve managed to pull through. My family came here for a better life like most immigrants. I didn’t know what culture was, even though my mother mentioned it sometimes. I didn’t know what race was, what America was, life and pretty much just how life works. I’ve been in America for almost fourteen years, switched schools eleven times and can’t count the amount of time I’ve moved apartment homes. I have even been religious, private, public, and charter schools. Schools that were predominately white, hispanic,

At my high school, most people believe that being Hispanic means you are from Mexico. As an officer in my school’s Hispanic Society, I work to educate fellow students that being Hispanic includes many nationalities and cultures.

Now, racism is seen as a radical social view to most. My grandfather on my father’s side grew up around and after World War II, when racism was alive and well. He was racist throughout my father’s life, which rubbed off on my father. Racism is wrong and whenever my father is racist, I just nod along. I would like to believe that I am not racist, although I occasionally slip as many people do. However, I look at the bright side, my grandfather was extremely racist and in a few generations, my family is not nearly as racist. With any luck my children will grow up in a world without these radical ideas that people of different races should be treated differently because of the color of their skin. Hopefully, future generations will grow up in a world where radical ideas like this and other dangerous ideas are not