MY BACKGROUND
Human identity is something human beings from the age of awareness have been curious about. Most people want to know who they are. Sue & Sue (2016) used an old Asian saying to explain an identity framework called the Tripartite development of personal identity. This framework explores personal identity on three different levels; individual level, group level, and universal level. On an individual level of identity, I was conceived and born as a singleton with no twin or multiple babies sharing the same genetic pool with me. Although I have two younger siblings, nonshared experiences contribute to my uniqueness. For instance, I was enrolled at a boarding school from middle school to high school while my siblings were not. My experience …show more content…
Gender: Female ii. Race: Black iii. Ethnicity and Culture: Yoruba/ Ekiti-Nigerian Yoruba Culture iv. Religious Preference: Christianity
Growing up, group markers like age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religious preference shaped my worldviews. Presently, my worldviews are influenced by marital status, level of education, ethnicity, culture and geographical location. The most salient group identity to me is my ethnicity and/or culture. Wherever I find myself, I identify first as a Yoruba person from Nigeria. Regardless, I’m aware of other sociodemographic identities I belong to e.g. gender, age group, level of education, employment status etc. I was born and raised in Nigeria, a country where everyone (excluding immigrants & diplomats) belong to a single race; the Black race. I consider this a privilege in the sense that I wasn’t exposed to racial segregation, discrimination or oppression. Although other forms of oppression occur in Nigeria, there are not related to race, culture or ethnicity. Notwithstanding, bias towards other races exist in my family (and other Nigerians) because of the colonial era. Nigeria was under the British Colonial rule until 1960 when the country gained independence. Presently, there are a lot of Nigerians alive who lived in the colonial Nigeria. Throughout my family history, we have had only one interracial …show more content…
The first immigrant in my family history is my aunt (my mother’s sister), who migrated to Austria forty years ago and then to the United States thirty years ago. My aunt migrated with her husband to Austria for higher education where they got their undergraduate degrees. The inspiration for emigration was based heavily on socioeconomic issues like economic instability, civil unrest, and insecurity caused by the military dictatorship existent in Nigeria then. In an informal interview with my aunt, although she was intrigued by the opportunities available in Austria, she moved to the United States because there were more African immigrants and black people there compared to
Human identity is something human beings from the age of awareness have been curious about. Most people want to know who they are. Sue & Sue (2016) used an old Asian saying to explain an identity framework called the Tripartite development of personal identity. This framework explores personal identity on three different levels; individual level, group level, and universal level. On an individual level of identity, I was conceived and born as a singleton with no twin or multiple babies sharing the same genetic pool with me. Although I have two younger siblings, nonshared experiences contribute to my uniqueness. For instance, I was enrolled at a boarding school from middle school to high school while my siblings were not. My experience …show more content…
Gender: Female ii. Race: Black iii. Ethnicity and Culture: Yoruba/ Ekiti-Nigerian Yoruba Culture iv. Religious Preference: Christianity
Growing up, group markers like age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religious preference shaped my worldviews. Presently, my worldviews are influenced by marital status, level of education, ethnicity, culture and geographical location. The most salient group identity to me is my ethnicity and/or culture. Wherever I find myself, I identify first as a Yoruba person from Nigeria. Regardless, I’m aware of other sociodemographic identities I belong to e.g. gender, age group, level of education, employment status etc. I was born and raised in Nigeria, a country where everyone (excluding immigrants & diplomats) belong to a single race; the Black race. I consider this a privilege in the sense that I wasn’t exposed to racial segregation, discrimination or oppression. Although other forms of oppression occur in Nigeria, there are not related to race, culture or ethnicity. Notwithstanding, bias towards other races exist in my family (and other Nigerians) because of the colonial era. Nigeria was under the British Colonial rule until 1960 when the country gained independence. Presently, there are a lot of Nigerians alive who lived in the colonial Nigeria. Throughout my family history, we have had only one interracial …show more content…
The first immigrant in my family history is my aunt (my mother’s sister), who migrated to Austria forty years ago and then to the United States thirty years ago. My aunt migrated with her husband to Austria for higher education where they got their undergraduate degrees. The inspiration for emigration was based heavily on socioeconomic issues like economic instability, civil unrest, and insecurity caused by the military dictatorship existent in Nigeria then. In an informal interview with my aunt, although she was intrigued by the opportunities available in Austria, she moved to the United States because there were more African immigrants and black people there compared to