My Family Culture Influenced Me

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

My father is from Yugoslavia. I have very early memories in childhood of knowing that I was a first generation American. I am Croatian and this culture is huge on family. I remember being constantly at family functions that seldom involved people outside of the family and the neighbors (on the block we lived). I actually believed that all of my neighbors were family members and all were Croatian. I didn’t realize that the neighbors or other people had different nationality and/or backgrounds until I was a pre-teen. My neighborhood (the block) was diverse for the Southside of Chicago in 1960’s and 1970’s. I was exposed to Lebanese, Jordanian, Hispanic, German, Irish, and Korean culture from the time I was a small child but I didn’t know that the culture was different from being Croatian; I felt that it was the norm. I didn’t realize the difference until I entered high school.

I come from a list of different ethnicities and line of ancestry. My ethnic background consists of English, African American, Native American, and Irish. Therefore, coming from these different ethnicity groups I get a viewpoint and understanding of all three ethnicities and how my family was shaped. Also, I was able to get insight on the different was my family was looked upon due to their different types of ethnicity groups. I was taught to never judge anyone by the way they looked because they can be a part of the same ancestry as you so never judge a book by its cover. Although, I have these numerous groups my family never singled in or chose one ethnicity over another but instead my family embraced all of their ethnic backgrounds with pride.

My family immigration story involves a lot of typical topics and a few hardships which people may not expect. By my generation, we have become accepted as White. However, both of my grandmothers had mixed ancestry.

In this paper I will begin by defining personal culture and national culture. After, I will then elaborate my own personal and national culture. I will continue to talk about the subject with the person that I have chosen for my cultural group, my mother, and I will identify her personal and national culture. Lastly, I will talk about my own personality and how it has a connection with my own natural culture; knowing this is important, it lets us know who we are, and how we act with people who are from different cultures.

If I could describe my own racial identity, I would describe myself as a twenty-one year old girl who is causation. I was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania my whole life with my two sisters. I come from a middle class working family. My cultural background is, I come from the Irish and German heritage. I have green eyes, brown hair and my skin color is light. When it comes to my extended families, racial history is most of my family members were from Ireland and came over the America to raise their families. My great grandmother was born in Ireland, but she lived Czechoslovakia for a few years, before she moved to America. So my most of my extended family that I know are Irish on my father’s side of the family, my mother’s family is German. My parents raised my sisters and I, in a house where religion was very important, my parents raised us as Catholics. My parents were really strict and old school when it came to certain things. How I feel about my racial identity is, I love the person I am and I would not want to change myself at all. I enjoyed the way I was raised; it helped me shape me into the person I am today.

My cultural background is English, I am an atheist I don’t believe in much but I do strongly believe that people should be treated equality. I am a very open minded person when it comes to diversity and others beliefs. I have never experienced my views impacting others negatively I have always educated myself on other beliefs so I don’t offend them but if my views did impact others

Growing up as an African American girl was easy for me, because my grandparents sheltered me from the real world. I never had to understand or experience discrimination, prejudice, or segregation that both of my grandparents had to face as adults and as children. Listening to the horrible stories from my grandparents about having to be in the house before dark or risking be launched by the White man. Having to talk with their heads down whenever they were in the presents of White individuals, along with not having the chance to have equal education to help them overcome their oppressors, where all things that made me aware of how life was not always equal or fair. That is way it is important to understand the lifestyle of other older individuals that are opposite of African American, because one would like to know what was going through the minds of a White child or adolescent when having to face certain challenges that may have occurred while interacting with individuals of the opposite race. Along with understanding how this have affected future interactions with all races or ethnic groups on a macro and a micro level. Knowing about any cultural values or beliefs that are different and similar to the opposing race, and how did that effect accepting help, and facing the end of life’s journey, will help understand how someone that is non-African American deals with age and life.

My parents split up when I was very young so I did not know much about my fathers side of the family. Once I began doing my college applications I realized they asked questions about my family such as cultural questions that I was unaware of. I had to reach out to my father because I was curious about our family history, come to find out that I had a grandfather who was full Black Foot Indian.Discovering this made me more curious about this tribe because I was unaware that I even Native American in my blood. I did days upon days of research to find out about this tribe I had never heard of prior to this discovery. Before, I just assumed I was what I was and did not care much about my heritage, but after I did the research and educated myself

Soon I will be arriving in America with my mother, father, and brother, along with some of my other extended family members. My family is originally from Berlin, Germany but migrated to Russia 150 years ago (Heinze Miller). For generations, my ancestors have been living as Volga “colonists”, as we are called by the Russians (Heinze Miller). We live in our German exclusive villages along the Volga River in Central Russia, in the governments of Saratov and Samara (Heinze Miller). Our heritage remains untouched by the Russian culture because, as both my mother and father have said, their civilization and ideals have not been worth emulating (Heinze Miller). This can prove as many disadvantages, since we do not have access to proper communication

I have a jumbled mess of information to process. I believe that being African America, Black, or of African descent, whichever is currently more acceptable that I have a plethora of bias pointed in my direction. Being a female doesn’t help alleviate the dilemma. Growing up in what is considered a textbook black family stereotype I am the last of six children, my mother having had children by different men, the home being on public assistance, growing up in a single parent household and church every Sunday. With a deceased father at the age of seven I became one of the 49% according to familyfacts.org that grew up in a single family household lead by a mother only. I felt different then as I do now in the way I think and process information

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.

The environment, family, and community I have grown up in has shaped me as a person. So far, I grew up in the same house all seventeen years of my life. My personality has grown and molded over the years of middle school and high school based off the lessons I have learned and the things I’ve been through.

Culture defines people’s values, beliefs, and personal interests. Culture is important because it allows people to maintain a unique identity society. Many cultures have common interests, while others may have customs that differ greatly from that of another. Technology has had a huge impact on present day cultures. Many culture have been altered including my own, and some have been created due to the rise of technology. Cultures differ so greatly that someone belonging to one culture may not agree with the values of another, which then causes social and ethical issues. My culture shares many similarities with others around the world; most of which have connected more people in recent years than ever before. Cultural gaps, and lack of

While looking upon my personal culture and my family’s culture in an attempt to find appropriate dishes for this assignment, it became apparent to me that I have no definite culture. Whereas I have lived in Canada my whole life, my family’s background has engaged me in varying cultures, though I have never felt truly attuned to one culture. On the other hand, my father is a first generation Canadian, his parents both from Scotland. Though aware of my Scottish origins and my grandparents’ migration to Canada, Scottish culture has never been explicitly celebrated amongst those in my family. Furthermore, my family previously migrated from Ireland during the Irish famine, resulting in Irish culture to also represented in my family’s culture. Variously, my mother’s side of the family has lived in Canada for many generations, but I do not consider myself as being authentically Canadian. Accordingly, throughout my childhood, I was never encouraged to celebrate an explicit culture. Furthermore, religion was never prominent in my life either, as my parents decided against baptizing any of my siblings and me, as per the family tradition, because they wished for us to have religious freedom. However, because of the rest of my family’s religion, as well as my background, my family has always celebrated Christian holidays, though I have never been to church for a reason other than a wedding. I find that without any cultural ties from my family’s history and practices, that the culture I