preview

Amanda Mcghie Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document

Introduction One interesting thing about life is that two individuals can relate to one another and find a sense of mutual understanding of each other regardless of what they have experienced in life and how different those experiences may be. This seemed to be the case when interviewing Amanda McGhie, a twenty-one year old biracial heterosexual woman currently living in Hemet, California. As a nineteen-year-old gay male who grew up in New Jersey, I would consider McGhie as someone I would consider to be very different from myself. She is a math major who has recently started her fifth semester at Mount San Jacinto College and plans on pursuing a career as a math teacher. This differs quite greatly from my own aspirations, as I am nearing …show more content…

During the interview, she mentioned how racism indirectly affected her mother, especially during a company picnic she attended with her mother and brother. “I remember going to her company picnic like ten years ago,” she said, “and all of her coworkers looking at us so funny because she was a single parent, and she’s walking down the street… with two black kids.” She further describes the reaction of her mother’s coworkers as not being related to her and her brother’s race, but states that “they were surprised my mother for procreating with someone who wasn’t white” (personal interaction, August 17, 2015). Her mother’s coworker’s evident feelings of discomfort and aversion agree with the actions that people may use to make other’s feel unwelcome or unvalued. As Johnson (2006) states, people’s reactions to individuals who are different may cause them to “stare as if to say, ‘What are you doing here?’ or stop the conversation with a hush they have to wade through to be included in the smallest way” (p. 55). Oppression and racism can manifest in more subtle forms than violence and outright prejudice, and through behaviors such as those described, individuals from privileged groups can cause both members of subordinate groups and those from dominant groups who stand by them to feel …show more content…

While I will acknowledge that my mother benefits from having a stable career, it is worth noting that her occupation as an anesthesiologist often caused her to have to work incredibly hard and for rather long periods—some of her shifts lasting approximately twenty-four hours. As a result, there have been numerous occasions when I would not see my mother until well into the evening and have even had to spend the night with her in the doctor’s lounge at the hospital on days and weekends when she was on-call. I will also acknowledge that my situation differs from McGhie’s considering that I was the only child that needed to be taken care of and that my mother’s income has allowed both of us to live quite comfortably. With that being said, I was able to relate to her feelings concerning others’ surprise regarding the family’s financial situation. In May of 2002, my mother and I moved into a spacious two-story home in a small, conservative neighborhood in New Jersey. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by many of our neighbors’ surprise over the fact that we were able to afford our new home. Many of the other families in the area firmly held onto gender roles such as that “men are naturally breadwinners, and women are naturally suited to have bread won for them” (Johnson, 2006, p. 113), and as a result of this, my mother and I

Get Access
Related
Get Access