Finding Comfort Wearing The Dashiki Analysis

For Lionel Naraidu, a Guyanese migrant, youngest of 15 children stemming from a low income family “being part of American society” was his highest achievement “because you can kick start everything else that happened in my life.” Raised in blue collar Queens Village, NY he embraced the “little things in life like obtaining an education, a roof, a decent job and being part of a good community,” where his attitude of gratitude flourished his servanthood and patriotism.

I’ve spent nearly half of my life living in a largely white suburb in Minnesota. Despite the differences, I have always found a way to blend in with the community, and I have never felt as though my race has been a major burden on me. However, one of the regrets that I have is that I really take my community for granted. Many other Somalis in this state and around my community are refugees that don’t have the same access to education or jobs as we do. Sometimes I thank God for the comfortable situation that my family and I are in. Many minorities in the state and in the country aspire to have a good life with kids and a front yard. But with racial disparity in the way, it’s not always easy having that dream. To me, the best way people of any race can do that is challenge themselves and work to their goals. It took my dad more than a decade in America to finance and study in order to get his bachelors and master’s degrees. While it’s no guarantee that one could work and achieve success in this country, it’s always worth

As an economically disadvantaged, minority student who ventured out of a small, closed-minded town, I have developed a passion to serve the underserved. Throughout my life, I have been associated with and witnessed the consequences of being a minority. For example, with 1% of my high school identifying

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

Growing up, I never had the warm pleasures of bedtime stories; instead, I would hear about the unimaginable impoverishment my parents faced in their childhood. The immediate reality of poverty obscured their investment in their brighter futures; both were forced both to sell lottery tickets on the streets or trade vegetables for portions of meat: just to help sustain their families. Looking back at those nights, I can only be grateful. As one of the first in my family to attend college, I am piloting a new future, one where I hope to lift not only my family out of their struggles but also the community that has always supported me and global communities today.

Being born black in the United States of America carries certain stereotypical ideas that automatically invade a person’s mind. At the top of the list they come from a single parent home, and more than likely have no relationship with their father if they even know who their father is. I was one of the fortunate few blacks in my community to be raised by my biological parents who were married long before I was born and remained married 48 years and were separated by the passing of my dad in 2014. My parents were born and raised under the harsh oppressive conditions of the Jim Crow Law southern state of Alabama that no doubt left undeniable mark on how they viewed the world; my dad was number seven of eleven children, many of them were adults when my dad was a child; two of his sisters were his teachers in school. My mom on the other hand was the third child of seventeen; four of my uncles are younger than me. I felt it imperative to mention their family order believing it to be indicative of the possible level of parenting skills that was imparted on them from their families of origin. Newly married, they moved to Los Angeles, California and a year and a half later I was born. Dad faced a different form of racism in Los Angeles than he faced in Alabama as a result he turned to alcohol to cope. My mom was a house with my first four years. Dad would drink and physically abuse my mother. I would jump on top of my mother while he would hit her and that would make him stop. My

I am a member of the African-American community. My mother and my father have taught me to embrace my culture and most importantly to embrace the color of my skin because that is apart of me and that is who I am. I have recently realized that embracing myself as a Black female consists of educating myself about my people in the Black community. In the past, Black people have faced Black anti-voting laws, slavery, and segregation through Jim Crow Laws. Unfortunately, these principles still exist in modern day society disguised as mass incarceration due to the War on Drugs. As an African American, I have witnessed the mass incarceration of African-Americans in my community. This never ending cycle leads to systematic criminalization within the

Born in California and raised in the deep south, I grew up in two conflicting societies. The cultural geography of both areas differs on a magnitude of levels and complicated my development into the cultures around me, however in retrospect influenced me to be a multidimensional and considerate person. At a young age my parents introduced me to progressive values. During the developmental toddler stages, I immersed myself in two different cultures: what I experienced at school and what I experienced at home. Charleston, South Carolina embodies small-town society though the Greater Charleston Area expands rapidly each year, pulling migrants, including my family, to the growing city. The overwhelmingly conservative views of Traditional Charleston

Growing up as an African American in Winchester was an experience. It was not unusual for me to be the only student of color in class or a sports team; which bothered me at times, but I learned to accept the issue and figure out a way to fit in. I began to mimic my peers’ behavior; I walked like them, sought out similar clothing brands, I nearly convinced myself I thought like them. I basically created a superficial mask to hide my visible difference. And it worked, but, once I entered my two bedroom apartment on the “bad” side of town. My mask dissipated.

Even though African Americans existed with fewer opportunities during the mid-1900s, the difference today currently displays little to no change in the current economic state. In the 21st century, African Americans attended inadequate schools because of the government charges and property laws that prohibit the children’s parents from migrating to neighborhoods with better education. Segregation will always affect the “white” population and the “black” population due to most of the biased public. Toni Cade Bambara is one of the many African American authors to present a voice and advocate topics not addressed in the civil rights and women’s

Coming from a diverse community to a predominantly all white community has been a slow transition. I’ve experienced situations where sometimes I question my identity and who I really am. I’ve experience microaggressions within my work environment and my internship at the Boys and Girls club in Mckinleyville. Kids are extraordinary, but are a mirror image of their parents or adult figures present in the household. You can see by the way kids talk to peers or adult figures, treat one another, that there’s an unfair thinking being embedded in their cognitive development. This will affect them in how they go about their day, who they chose to interact with, what they allow to happen and the type of

Twenty-four years ago, my dad boarded a one-way flight to the U.S. He was coming to a new country filled with vocational opportunities his homeland could not provide. He was not limited by his place of birth or the reality that no one else in his family had ever left their village. He trusted his gut and took a leap of faith. A year later he called for my mother and I to join him in the U.S. and we left our life in Kenya and my future was ultimately changed. Throughout my life, I have been keenly aware that had my father limited himself to only opportunities that he could see, I would have never even been able to consider opportunities such as the UNC Medical Center Administrative Fellowship.

I was born in Delta State, Nigeria. I am one of eight children. My mother was an orphan and my father lost his own father at the age of 7; both my parents grew up in poverty in Nigeria and managed to succeed because of the education they were fortunate to receive. I mention this to illustrate that my parents taught me the value of an education and have provided my siblings and I with the right access to resources to ensure we succeed academically. My family voluntarily migrated to the UK when I was seven years old to avoid death threats made against my parents. We initially lived in Kent, and I attended primary school in Ramsgate. My siblings were one of the few Black students in the school I was the only Black student in my grade. Prior to migration, I was aware of the racial categories in the UK and the US, and the implications of being an African immigrant in the UK, but I did not comprehend the full implications of this until I lived in a country where I was a racial minority. Thankfully, my primary school had other international students, from across the globe, and I had some open-minded British peers and I could thrive and learn about other cultures. This early exposure was a great eye-opener for me – I learnt about racism, classism, and culturally different gender expectations. This was a great learning experience and has informed my interest in studying social justice issues and cultural differences.