Personal Narrative: My True Cultural Identity

It took a confrontational experience to reveal my true cultural identity was far different than I had ever perceived. Because of my elementary school’s curricular adaptation to express our cultural backgrounds, everyone in the class was required to share their historical ancestry. Regardless of the teacher’s best efforts, many never embraced customs or traditions in the school setting. Likewise, my personality and appearance in fourth grade had conformed to the cultural identity which was reflected by the majority of the class. Like them, I saw myself as a white, middle class Caucasian boy just like my best friend, a chubby, white-faced, happy-go-lucky kid named Alex. I even envisioned myself as being chubby like Alex. Then it happened. The bully in the class, at least that’s how I saw him, was a very large kid named Danny, who looked more like a bulldog than a kid. He had found me to be a great …show more content…
Immediately his flaming red hair whipped around his head as he growled out orders for me to meet him after school. “If you don’t show up, Joseph, I will come looking for you,” he said with spit shooting from the left side of his mouth and his upper lip snarled as he loudly screeched each word. He reminded me of the howler monkey I saw at the zoo. The monkey who could yell the loudest dominated the group and everyone was afraid to challenge his authority. The others did not like or admire the domineering leader but ran whenever he came toward them. He could grab the banana thrown by zoo visitors, out of the hand of a submissive member who had justly caught it. The zoo guide told us the large one’s behavior is completely normal in the wild and captivity. I wondered to myself, “What is the significance or necessity of submitting to someone frightening? Respect is not owed or deserved to those who do not return it. What was I to do about