African Americans: Autoethnography. This Past Saturday

In the film, Africans in America: “The Terrible Transformation”, the narrator discussed the influence of certain criteria in which slaves had to meet in order to work for land owners in America. These criteria included: being African American, non- European, and non- Christian. The government created this criteria system to build a barrier between the land owners and the slaves. The individuals that owned property treated their slaves as if they were foreign/strange. The white Americans did not want African American people to have the same equality as they did; Therefore, America was ruled by the whites while the blacks were merely just servants to them.

The American culture is define to everyone in their own way. Everyone grows up differently in a particular community that shares the same languages, values, rules, and customs. The American Culture on that is consider to be a “melting pot”, because of all the different cultures that reside inside of it making it so diverse. Race in this country has never been a great topic throughout history. African Americans play a huge role into defining what our culture is as a whole, as well as being a part of racism for the past 250 years.

Growing up in a predominantly white community, I had never thought of the issue of race as a child. My neighbor and I were best friends, and I never thought of myself as different. She had blonde hair; I had black. She had blue eyes; I had dark brown. We loved to play with the same things, thus we were

Day 1. We talked about the definition of culture and after going around the room it was revealed WHITE PEOPLE HAVE CULTURE. This may not be major news, but it was to me. I thought I knew white people. All my friends in high school were white or some derivative. Most of them were Jewish. Jewish people have a culture. They claim it all the time, but all the other non- Jewish white people literally had nothing to talk about on multicultural day. Even the Italians. So imagine my

One can say that we live in a country that under the constitution states that there is justice for all citizens, we are all granted equal protection under the law, and we have equality for all; but yet people are still fighting for equality. Blacks are being victimized by the system that causes them to be treated unfairly by the police which leads then to dealing with discriminatory sentencings for small crimes, and they would forever live in this vicious cycle that was created to put Blacks away. There are many laws, policies, and legislations that are set in place to keep certain groups of people oppressed without even openly stating which group of people would be oppressed. Race and crime, as two significant social phenomena, are

How did the economic situation for blacks change in the late twentieth century compared to the mid twentieth century?

Race was a primary factor used to shape the identity of African Americans which was seen through their culture. Race is portrayed through the narratives such as The life of Frederick Douglas by Frederick Douglass and the Autobiography of an Ex-colored man by James Weldon Johnson.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama. The question is always asked does the media reflect the reality of society, or does society try and imitate the reality shown by the media? There are a number of stereotypes associated with African Americans in our society such as African American men are athletes, rappers, criminals, deviant, streetwise, uneducated, and unemployed just to name a few. African Americans in the media have changed through the years. The history of African Americans on TV or minorities in general is hampered by the racial conflicts and segregation that are embedded in American society. Historically, black actors have been grouped stereotypically and assigned to comedy. This has often been traced to the genre of black minstrelsy that was popular in the early 20th century.

Throughout the past occurrences of African Americans, several recurring themes are prevalent. These themes shape their past and signify patterns that may be correlated to other topics in history. Trial and error proved highly pervasive in the history of African Americans as much of their progression in society stemmed from several unsuccessful attempts that eventually resulted in victory. Slave revolts, pleas for emancipation, and bids for equal rights were never initially successful when they involved violence. Each early attempt failed quite miserably, however, those who persevered learned from past failures of violent displays, and eventually found success if they were to approach it appropriately.

1877 was a critical time in American history. However, 1877 was the point in time where African Americans were cheated out of the opportunity to achieve true racial equality in America. After Reconstruction ended, a slew of racist regulations, such as Jim Crow, and illegal housing laws were passed that handicapped an African American’s ability to pursue the American dream. Furthermore, the deferring onto the later generations regarding the topic of racial equality in America is the reason why there is racial unrest in our present time.

I am African American. My name Zola, not some other stereotype name that you can think of like Bon’Quisha or Laquisha. I live in a middle-class neighborhood, I haven’t dropped out of school or become pregnant, so I guess that is an accomplishment for me. I go to a school that’s

worried that they may wonder why she was there or question why a white person would be at

I was the only African American person in the room which, did not bother me until race came up, awkwardly. Steve quoted a line from the movie The Help “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” I did not give this much thought other than the fact he just quoted a great movie. However, a member of the church turned to me and said “oh don’t worry, we’re not racist we’re not like that around here”. I said “I’m sorry?” Then she says “oh, Steve quoted a black movie and I don’t want you to worry.” At this point, I was beyond ready to go.

African-American Lives 2: A Way Out of No Way is a documentary produced by PBS. It is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. I chose this documentary because the title “A Way Out of No Way” really stood out to me. From the title, I could tell that the documentary would talk about slavery. I believe that slaves at the time thought there was no way out of slavery.

Observation Two. For my second immersion experience, I visited an area in Richardson, TX known as Chinatown. It is an small shopping center that is a major hub for those who want to experience authentic Asian shopping, events, and food (DFW Chinatown, 2013). Upon entering Chinatown, I decided to eat some authentic Chinese food and chose to eat at a restaurant named Jen Chi Chinese Food. Upon arrival, there was an older man and younger woman who greeted me, with the younger woman who lead me to a table. There was only one other family in the restaurant when I sat down. It was a small family of what I believe what the father, mother, and two children, who I never heard say a word. Shortly after I was seated, another group of three women and an infant came into the restaurant be seated. This is when my feeling welcomed quickly change. One of the three women turned her entire body towards me and stared at me. I just figured that she was probably wanting to get a better look of me and was trying to figure out why an African American woman was in the restaurant. I thought it was interesting that she did not try to hide the fact that she was looking at me. The only thing that broke her constant staring at me was when the baby cried or the mother of the baby spoke to her. I assume that she was the grandmother to the baby. It seemed that her role was to care for the child and the mother was very willing to let the older woman tend to the child first. It was obvious that the other two