Growing Up White: How living in a white neighborhood formed me I grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It is a village of 75,000 people located forty-five minutes north west of Chicago. Race was never an issue in my life. I never felt racially profiled, and never been judged for being white. Race is not something I am confident in talking about, and is not something I am comfortable discussing.…
Blog #1 In the nonfiction book, Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race the author Debby Irving talks about the twenty-five years she sensed racial tensions in her personal and professional life. The story talks about Irving "aha" moment that shifted her world view. In the introduction of the book she lists 5 common beliefs in society today. The most common is that racism is about bigots because bigots are people who show hatred to other groups outside their own and this is a big problem in our society today.…
This article was about how an African American man felt about himself due to racial events that took place in his life. The black man was an entrepreneur, the man had experienced a few racial incidents prior to being interviewed for this research. His opening statement was about how he felt being black in white America. He explained that, "the psychological warfare games that we have to play every day just to survive. We have to be one way in our communities and one way in the workplace or in the business sector."…
Every author has told their story in their own way. They try to provide the reader with views that can be relatable to what is happening in America today. We have read how all ethnicities were treated and made their mark in society. In the end, every minority when through a struggle to be accepted in “White America”. Some of the writers do privilege individuality over nationality.…
“Well, one, you’re African-American” are the words so carefully chosen by my high school theology teacher in describing why I should get into college. Not because of my intellect or my drive, but because of what I have no control over and more often than not, the future of my success would be determined by those judgements. As a young black girl, the product of a single-mother and financial instability, statistics show that the odds are against me, that my future will be the pinnacle of economic depravity and dependence. That will not be my future and only those with such shortsightedness are not able to see the passion and drive I possess, that I refuse to become another statistic.…
Amery Race Do you like cross country and did you know that it is mostly a mental sport? Well it is. Most of it is in your head, the little voice telling you to keep going. Talking way too much talking as I get ready for the race. As the girls head towards the starting line nervousness fills me when we are doing warmups.…
When I knew that I was gonna come to the United States for the very first time, I had a mishmash of emotions. Excitement was of course present, since I've fancied myself living the American dream. You know, the kind of life you see on TV. So, whenever I come back fresh from the States, wind blows like there's no tomorrow. All I say is how great life is in America.…
I have spent a lot of time exploring what it means to be black in America and to be a woman. With a journalism career spanning 17+ years as a writer and editor, I established myself as a trusted music historian, cultural critic and impenetrable voice of my generation. I have interviewed Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Common and numerous others while examining Hip Hop as a sociopolitical movement along with analyzing contemporary black culture and urban life for The Chicago Defender, HipHopDX, Soul Train and numerous other media outlets. After many years of living my dream, I became disgruntled and decided to pursue my life long goal to earn my college degree. I returned to Harold Washington College in my beloved hometown of Chicago and went…
Back in middle school I didn’t know what “Being Black” meant. I didn’t know someone could be an ethnicity. I didn’t know there was a such thing as standing up for who you were and what your ethnicity was. I guess in a way I didn’t really know who I was. It’s funny in middle and high school when you don’t know who you are or where you come from or what you do.…
I looked back to my father, who could see that this was the first time I had really seen horror of this kind. My father looked at me and asked, “Can you even imagine?” I shook my head, and told him, “No.” It wasn’t immediate, but the courage and selflessness that I had saw displayed by my fellow Americans on that day changed me. I began to look at the world in a new way, but more importantly I started to understand exactly why I should have pride in the fact that I am an American.…
While it is uncomfortable to acknowledge that some of us have an unearned advantage in life thanks to things that we have no control over; such as gender, race, skin color, sexual orientation, accent and even wealth, it is important to discuss to better ourselves. As much as we, as individuals can continue to acknowledge and recognize our privilege it is practically impossible to discard or refrain from benefiting from the advantageous perks of the privileges. 0However, as we are able to see this invisible advantage many deny we can use our privilege to help and speak out and against the societal constructs. Lucky for me I have American, middle-class, straight and most of the time, white privilege. When I have a conversation with someone, with…
Another tragic memory that pumped some sense into my head about racial identity and ethnic disparities; was when my elder brother was arrested on the basis of being black. My brother was wrongfully arrested because a Caucasian officer expressed that he saw him rob someone. Upon arrival at the scene trying to understand what happened, that officer expressed in his words that “ nigger you know you robbed that store”. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me because, I have always heard about situations like this. The officer made more remarks such as, “you niggers are always stealing”, “you niggers will always be shit”, and you are going to pay for this crime even if you did not do it.…
To be an American is to be able to choose freely. Acts of terror seem to be more and more common, according to the media. In times of terror and strife the citizens of the United States of America come together no matter what beliefs and opinions we have to defeat the opposition. Secondly, America was built on immigrants, and as such we are open to diverse races and beliefs, and Americans consider people they have just met as friends. This is what I believe is my American Identity.…
When I assert “I am white” it means that I have never had to question who I am as a person based on my race. I have never had to question the way I was treated just based upon the color of my skin. This calls to the social construction of race. I hardly ever have to question my race because I am white. Those of other races often fight internal battles where they question, “Is the reason I was just treated this way attributed to my race?”…
I have felt many pressures, race is such a big problem among black people but as community can get over the hump of being pressured into a few stereotypes. From my own personal experience being a young black man growing up in many places of black being the majority such as Detroit, Chicago, New York I felt an amazing amount of comfort around these areas. Once I move down to La Vernia Texas, being enrolled into an all white school with a lot of Mexicans and the only black people could only fit on a bench in a hallway that we called “The Black Bench” in high school, I attended La Vernia school district for 7 years from 4th grade all the way to 10th grade in high school. My first encounter with this whole move, and experience this new…