There I was, lying in bed watching television with my aunt. Then suddenly, a Barbie commercial came on. Seeing the colors, and the adjectives that described the products. Seeing how fun it looked to actually play with that doll. Seeing how great it looked to have an actual house where dolls can live.…
Since the legal ending of segregation, many attempts have been made to make sure that each person is treated as an equal and the United States operates as a “color-blind” community. However, this may not be the best way to function and progress as a society. Throughout an excerpt from her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, author Beverly Daniel Tatum uses the examples of forming a black identity, acknowledging the personal impacts of racism, and finally the social impact of racial encounters to show the strength behind racial identity in order to convey that finding camaraderie in shared experiences is not something to discourage. Beverly Daniel Tatum uses the formation of identity by black adolescents in a…
Cultural change influences the social assets of a person or a community. It can affect people's behavior, perception, or the way they think. America, in particular, is a weird nation because it is an outlier (Watters 492). In Ethan Watters’s essay, “Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” Watters depicts the importance of culture shaping human development, focusing on the psychological aspects that cultivates the human mind. If America decided to change its cultural view of itself, it would be more aware and accepting.…
“You’re just a white girl trapped inside a black body,” were words I heard repeatedly as a child. For the longest time I considered those words a compliment. As an African American girl native to the Congo, I was naïve enough to think this statement meant how fully immersed with American culture my appearance, language, and every aspect of my personality was becoming. To me, those words held acceptance from my American friends and families—the only imaginable thing any foreign child yearns for. It hadn’t occurred to me that underneath that statement hid a message very twisted that would follow me for the next 12 years of my life.…
Insecurity Growing up on a farm with two older brothers, I was a bit of a tomboy. From birth until age seven, my favorite toys were Tonka trucks and wooden guns. I wrestled in the mud, ate like a teenage boy, and at the age of five took scissors to my hair, chopping it into a pixie cut, so I could “be like my older brothers”. Innocently, I wore my barn clothes to school and my kindergarten picture displays my hair in a rats nest, with a large crooked smile, and bright eyes. However, that yearbook picture changed as my innocence faded away.…
I grew up in a small rural town with very little diversity. Being White, I never questioned my race or even realized the role it played in my life. Tatum describes a participant in one of her various classes and workshops as a White women stumped by the question of ethnic background. Finally the women responded “I’m just normal”(p. 93). Now I realize how ignorant this thought process is, however for the first half of my life this is how I saw my “racial…
Being in a biracial family is something I had never expected to happen. Growing up in a stereotypical Asian family, I was always taught to be conservative in our behavior, never be out walking alone, and to be cautious of the poor, Black homeless people who are often hanging around the slummy alleyways of downtown Los Angeles eying random passersby with either a gloomy, defeated look in their eyes or a hard, uncomfortable stare. As a result, I grew up to become a very cautious and reserved family girl. I rarely went out with friends and usually felt content with settling in my warm, serene home. The thought of becoming friends from outside my comfort zone was never something I expected nonetheless becoming family with a whole different race never crossed my mind until the one day…
“In the kitchen” is a short story of the author Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s experience with understanding the significance of “the kitchen”, his family, history, the notion of good and or bad hair and the background on African American products. The understanding of the experience allows him to clearly describe the importance on why he thinks and functions a certain way. Henry expresses two sides of “the kitchen” and “In the kitchen”. “In the kitchen” highlights his mother’s hair at-home business, the discovery of his roots and how his family expresses their view on the notion good and or bad hair, and the wonders of the straightening comb (“hot comb”). “The kitchen” highlights the kinks that lay on the back of your neck and even…
Life in the United States as a minority can be extremely challenging and discouraging at times, but Jackie Robinson set a hopeful example to many people that the color barrier could be broken as the first African American to play for the Dodgers in a major league sport. Throughout my life I have been faced with odds that have not been in my favor, and with casual racism, but I have prevailed in a similar smaller scale. I attend a small high school of five hundred thirty seven students, and eighty percent of the student body is Caucasian. Sometimes, the race comments are unavoidable no matter how hard I try to shield myself from them. There is always one individual who thinks it is okay to ask me how I “crossed the border.”…
In the summer of 2004, she was standing there with the sunlight shining on her beautiful warm brown hair. “Girls! Come here!” Our father called to us out playing in the yard. “It’s your song Magnolia.…
The story Hairs is a kids book about a girl telling you about her family's hair. Her dad has broom-like hair that sticks up into the air. She has lazy hair that never does what she wants it too. But her mom's hair is her favorite. Her mom's hair looks like little rosettes and is the warm smell of bread before you bake it.…
Natural Hair Discrimination Hair. We all have (or had) it, and all have a very love-hate relationship with it. But more often, then not, we change it and do not let our natural hair shine. This stems from many different things like; simply wanting change, to just experiment, or from facing years of discrimination.…
Being a Caribbean woman, I am mixed with multiple different descents that I’m not even aware of. I was born with naturally curly hair, which was not as “trendy” and adorned as it is today. While growing up, it was hard fitting in with the other girls that had silky, straight, non-frizzy hair. Throughout middle school, students would tease me for how big and curly my hair was. Being bullied for something I couldn't control led me to make decisions I wish I had never made.…
It was my senior year of high school and my second year of cosmetology at Evit when I realized that cosmetology wasn't for me. I was no longer enjoying it . I hated going there, the four hours I was there seemed like days. I wanted to quite. I had even talked to one of the councilors' there about switching programs, but I was already half way on finishing cosmetology and if I had giving up then I would have wasted a year.…
I have been working on creating a haircutting business for about a year now. I have worked with many men, and young boys in the community by cutting their hair. I have made a lot of money off of them, but I am afraid of how I will be able to pursue any father from lack of funds for buying the things I need. Building, furniture, supplies, and so on.…