Criminal Justice Case Study: Adam Barre

The person who I interviewed for the project goes by the name of Adam Barre. I met Adam in a Criminal Justice program last semester. Adam is Somolian, but was born and raised in Canada. His mother was born in Ethiopia and his father born in Somalia who both moved to Canada in 1985. I learned in the interview Adams grandfather was drafted into World War 2 to fight in Europe while his grandmother raised his mom. Both parents suffered poverty and hunger growing up. Due to Adams parents having a rough upbringing, it was their goal to make the best life for Adam. I chose to do my interview on Adam because I am very interested in the Somalian culture and his back ground in it.
Part A:
What does the term “culture” mean to you? “The term culture …show more content…
“I think it is very important to know ones culture because they are a lot of cultural barriers between people. It is good to know because some cultures do not allow stuff such as Muslims who are not allowed to eat pork. It creates awkwardness when you do something against their culture such as giving them pork. I think it is beneficiary to know ones culture.”
Is culture an important part of your identity, why or why not? “I would not consider culture a big part of my life as much as it used to be, mostly because I was born in Canada and have adapted to the Canadian culture. Although, my parents still practice the African culture like praying and keeping traditional foods around. I appreciate them doing that because it helps me practice my culture. It is hard to express my culture because it is always related back terrorism, which is why I do not feel as though I should practice.”
What struggles do those encounter for those who want to keep their culture an important part of their lives? “In the Alberta area a lot of the Samolians try to practice their culture by going to the mosque which is our church. I have noticed my generation in samolian girls never want to wear their head dresses because they feel that they are being judged by the Canadian culture. It is hard to keep your culture depending on where you are from because when something bad happens such as isis, people automatically relate you back to that and changes peoples …show more content…
Adam and I were already both pretty comfortable with each other from previous encounters at school, which made the interview easy for both of us. I asked Adam some ice breaker questions such as his age, where he was born, and some family history. The icebreaker made is easier to get into the more in depth questions. The questions I asked Adam were the general first 7 given for the assignment. He took time to think about each question thoroughly before answering, I admired that because it made me think hard about what he was saying and take it all into consideration. Adam gave an example for almost each question which gave me a visual for what he was explaining to me. While answering each question he showed a lot of emotion and compassion when it came down to him talking about his personal culture. Although he does not practice his culture has much as he would like, you can tell in his emotions that he has a passion for it. Due to me knowing Adam as quite the character and class clown from before, it was really nice for him to take this so seriously and show his professional side. With him being born and raised in Canada with a Somalian heritage he experienced a lot of racism growing up. Although he struggled throughout all of his school years Adam overcame the racism which helped him learn and grow as a