"How do I keep my own biases and my own history from allowing me to understand new information?"

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

Trying not to be a product of your environment is so detrimental in making it in life. There are so many people blame their upbringing for the trouble they get in. Just because your mom or dad was not the richest people, or honest, or even if they were in and out of jail, drunks, drug addicts or whatever. That does not mean you should follow in their footsteps. No matter what, us as children should always strive to be better than our parents. No matter the pigmentation of your skin there will always be stereotypes. When some people see an African American male with a t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of Jordan’s on they might instantly think he is some type of thug or drug dealer. When some people see a single mother no matter African American or Caucasian with more than four kids some may think that they the kids might not have the same fathers. The crazy part is that the young African American male you see might be a doctor, a lawyer, or maybe the CEO of the company you want to work for, the single mother you see might be widowed, or anything. One goal in life should to be never to fall into the stereotype of your race, gender, or

As a biracial woman growing up in the South, I never knew my place in the world. My father is a dark-skinned African American and my mother is a fair-skinned Caucasian, leaving my sister and I to fall somewhere in the middle. In elementary, my unique background caused numerous personal problems. Friends would assume I was adopted. I would frantically defend myself by saying “I am not adopted! My mommy is white and my daddy is black, and there is nothing wrong with me.” My classmates often told me that I was not possible: “black goes with black, and white goes with white.” In time, both races rejected me. I was bullied by the black girls at my school for being “too white” regarding my clothes and my hair. I continued to struggle with this

Generally we want to approach decisions with placing ourselves in another’s shoes, however, seeing past how we view ourselves within our own racial group can again lead to stereotyping behavior.

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

Children with religion in the classroom have better social skills. Kids with religion in their home are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development. (Wenner, 2008)

The first time I was aware of my race, I was six years old. I knew I was black, but it never was objectified by anyone. That is until my elementary school took our class to a water park. One of the boys in my class came up to me and told me he was surprised to see me go on the trip because his father told him that “black people can’t swim” and that I would sink to the bottom of the pool. The boy was not aware of his offensive comment; he was just curious why would I go to a water park if I can’t swim.

Being born in Columbia, SC and moving to a small town called Lancaster, I identity as being African American, although many perceive me to me biracial. Many people would ask if I were mixed or adopted because I looked distinctly different than my mother. My mother is a very chocolate lady while my father looks almost Caucasian with his very sandy brown hair. As many African Americans are stereotyped as not having a father figure in their life, my father was indeed in my life but he did not play a key part. My mother on the other hand is not your typical “black” mother.

I first learned about the world from my parents. Their viewpoints on people and their opinions about issues shaped my perceptions growing up. After interacting with people outside of my house, however, I began to doubt the explanations that my parents offered about issues like race and religion. For example, I distinctly remember my dad telling me to avoid befriending black people due to their “inherent aggressive behavior.” Then, I moved schools in third grade and started interacting with African American kids my age while also learning about the civil rights movement and segregation. With these new experiences and education, I realized that what my parents said to me was wrong and how our negative stereotypes of African Americans are harmful. I shared my findings with them, but they simply shrugged my comments off and kept their bigoted opinions firm despite everything I said. I think it was at that moment I realized

I was born in New York City in Harlem hospital on July 26 1989. My parents Gwen and Donald Ames grew up in Pensacola Florida and Norfolk Virginia. They had two different lives growing up. My mom being from Florida mainly grew up around mostly African Americans and in a more country like town. My mom’s father was a pastor at a Baptist church and my grandmother worked for the state. I remember talking to my mom and she said she grew up when segregation was big. She would march and protest against desegregation. My mom went to Florida State where it was predominantly white. She said she had trouble with the transition from being around mostly African American to a school with mostly Caucasian. She felt that she had to prove something. The drive

My initial racial attitudes and beliefs were passed down from my parents. However, becoming educated has been the best way to inform me of my racial attitudes and beliefs. My attitudes and beliefs of other races and ethnicities drastically changed around the age of 19. One cannot always feed off of others and assume that what they believe is always accurate. While I will not generalize all white people as racist or all blacks are violent, I do take much caution when interacting with others. It’s crazy, but I can

Clearly, religion had a negative impact on Lily Sabbath, but in the real world, does religion have a positive or negative impact on children? John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids to rate how much self-control they believed their children showed, how often they exhibited negative or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers (livescience.com). The researchers then compared their answers to how often these children’s parents said they attended religious services, talked openly about religion with their child and argued about religion at home. The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services and talked openly with their kids about religion were said to have better self-discipline, social skills and learning abilities than kids with non-religious parents. The children whose parents often argued about religion were more likely to have these problems. Bartkowski noted that “Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family.” If religion has such a positive impact on children, why is there so much crime? Are crimes often connected to religious preferences?

I am an African American women who has been limited to different stereotypes in my community all my life. When I was younger I was shamed for not being black enough. I never listened to rap music and my head was always in a book. Other black people did not accept me because it was not okay to listen to Taylor Swift or get A’s in school. I was always sad that I did not fit in with my sisters or anybody else in the community. They used to

Having a black father and a white mother has always had some family members question my kinship to them. The older I got, the more my identification became reliant on one aspect of myself over the other. The African-American part of me became suspect in the eyes of certain family members with no real comprehension on my part as of why. I saw ignorance towards my whiteness, not only within society but within my own family, which resulted in the inability to perceive my blackness.

My mother is Caucasian, my father is African American. I am a mix between the two. As I got older and was able to fully comprehend the world around me, I started to realize I was being treated differently when I was with my mom. Trips to the grocery store made it more personal. White people were quick to smile at me and were always very pleasant. Blacks would simply ignore my gestures. Things were the opposite when I was with my dad, White people would avoid eye contact, wouldn’t smile at me when I smiled at them. Black people were quicker to return my gestures. Completely different than when I was with my mother. As a young child, this was very confusing and hurtful.