Personal Narrative: A Person's Cultural Identity

What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".

For my inter-ethnic encounter, I interviewed one of my best friends from high school Ashley Arias. Ashley is nineteen years old, so she is a year younger than me. She is currently pursuing a nursing degree at Notre Dame of Maryland University located in Baltimore, Maryland. She is originally from Virginia but now lives in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Her immediate family includes her parents and her younger brother. She also has a bulldog that she has had for three years. I have known Ashley for about seven years, but we have been really close for about five of those years starting during my junior year of high school.

The front range of Colorado has a large diversity of cultural populations represented. Therefore, as a professional counselor it is my responsibility to educate myself on the cultures I am likely to be working with. Since there is such a diverse population there is no way I am going to know everything about everyone’s culture. Although, I do know the cultures of the majority populations that frequent the agency I am currently working. Since I am working with populations I would be aware of the societal issues they are facing and the oppression they have been and are up against. Therefore, this allows me to immerse myself into their culture, learning and seeing firsthand the oppression and prejudices they face in the community in which we

I was born in the summer of 1964, to lower middle class parents, my mother was divorced with having left three young sons behind with her first husband. My father owned a very popular gas station and repair shop, by birth being the result of a torrid love affair, this topic remained in the gossip pool well into my twenties. I was kept in the dark until Jr. high school, my mother was forced to tell me part of her truth, after the principal sent a note home. My mother suffered from depression and substance abuse as a coping mechanism to sooth her pain. At the age of two my mother gave birth to my sister, although, my mother loved us, I believe her pain tortured her relentlessly. Soon my father choose alcohol to numb his

“Don’t let the Arab play dodgeball with us. He might try killing us.” As I looked around exasperatedly for the origin of this voice, I was greeted with a barrage of laughter. I did not have the cultural or linguistic qualifications to be deemed Arabic. Nor could my long, spindly arms cause harm. Yet, slowly, and in unison, each of my new sixth-grade classmates turned to stare at me. “Hey Arab, wipe that target off your forehead,” someone called out. I quickly realized my verbal assailant had mistakenly connected my tilak chandlo, a distinct Hindu forehead marking, with his own misinformed understanding of “Arab-ness.” My first lunch period ended with a bloody nose and a seat in the principal’s office. From that point forward, my future in middle school and high school appeared rather grim. The prospect of re-educating my peers seemed daunting and unmanageable.

Adapting to a whole new culture can be difficult and have a huge impact on someone's life; that is exactly what I learned to do at a young age. Growing up, I only knew how to speak Spanish and what my parents taught me about the Mexican culture. English was not taught to me until I began elementary, but even then I did not grasp the language quickly. At a young age, I realized my life was not going to be so easy because of this language and culture barrier.

The sociocultural perspective is especially related to my life because right before I started high school I moved from a school with five hundred students in the high school to a school with five hundred kids pre-k through twelfth grade. First hand I experienced what it is like trying to fit into a place where it seemed like everyone else is inside on a joke about me. No matter what, it is always hard to fit in. It doesn’t help that I was a teenage girl when my parents decided to move us. Even now after being here for four years I still feel the ache that means I still do not fit in or that I am not good enough to fit in. Going from what I thought was a small town where since there were more kids I had an easier chance of fitting in.To a town

Ok so I was randomly stalking a page on musical.ly *Justin* but I was was going through the comments and there was a comment that was something among these lines "Wait so are you a girl or boy?" And I was like I don't know your just on a page on musical.ly and the person you clicked on has a name and the name is Justin. Does that sound like a girl name to you? I didn't think so. And then there was a commen that said "Me too...on his bio IT said IT was transgender". Like 1st off you don't call someone "it" everyone has name so use their name. And all the people that ask for his birth name his name is Justin it has always been and always will be.(unless he changes it). And Like nobody told you to come and hate on people. If you wanna hate so

“Siitae?” I turned around to face my cousin, “ Are you leaving the house like that?”

“Focus on your education, it’s going to be the only thing you are going to have in the long run” Its the first thing my mom tells me every time I start complaining about school. I have grown up in a bicultural lifestyle where I have managed both of worlds.I grew up in a typical mexican household, where we are not allowed to go anywhere without our parents, were we have thousands of second, third, and fourth cousins. My parents were born and raised in a rural area in mexico. My dad stopped going to school when he was in elementary school, because he had to help my grandpa with the harvest and with feeding and taking care of the animals. My mom stop going to school when she was in middle school, because her parents couldn't pay for her education

Experiencing a new culture is usually life changing. I first started going to Tijuana, Mexico three years ago because my dad was deported. The only places I had ever been to were here in California. When going to a new place I never thought there would be a drastic change in the environment, or people. It’s amazing how a border can separate two worlds and make them so different.

When I was as young as two years old I had my first memory, It was of me and my sister trying to walk, but our oldest sister would always come over to trample us in her attempt to get to the play kitchen first. Ever since this young age, I have memories that all include the same person, my twin, Heidi. We were inseparable at this young age, being able to have somebody to play with whenever you wanted to, but like any other siblings we would fight. We were always told that it would be “so much” fun and “so awesome” to have a twin, every single time somebody told us this we would always respond by saying that we wished we were seen as two different individuals, rather than just being known as ‘the twins’.

131). These are two I was guilty of growing up. As I have gotten older and became acquainted with individuals whose culture or ethnicity is different from my own I have found that it is important to learn more about their individual backgrounds and part of this is having a better understanding of diversity. Being a social work student has allowed me to become even more aware of the importance of a client’s background, as-well-as minority status. As social workers it is important to follow the principles set forth in NASW’s Standards for Cultural Competency. Number 3, Cross-Cultural Knowledge, tells us that as social workers we must possess and continue to develop our knowledge and understanding of, “The history, traditions, values, family systems, and artistic expressions such as race and ethnicity; immigration and refugee status; tribal groups; religion and spirituality; sexual orientation; gender identity or expression; social class; and mental or physical abilities of various cultural groups” (2015, pp.

Being brought up in the city of Los Angeles has introduced me to various cultures and ethnicities ,while it has made me more understanding of other cultures and their beliefs , it has given me the false assumption that the rest of the country is as understanding as we are. I myself have been racially profiled at the airport , for my indian like appearance; however when they learned that i did not possess an accent they quickly excused my father and I. Although we were not offended by the experience , it questions how much people know about the cultures that they constantly encounter. The officer probably assumed that we were Muslim even though we are Christian , and as well assumes that the religion as a sector is violent and not only the jihadist. While we do have a lot of diversity around us, our ignorance towards these various cultures and religions obstructs our acceptance and creates stereotypes , that judges races as a whole instead of individuals. Each individual in every culture has the capacity to be peaceful or violent , but it is our pessimistic perceptions of these cultures that prohibit us from full acceptance and

Culture and diversity shape how people learn and perform their functions within a particular profession. A social worker connects with people from a diverse cultural background and should demonstrate competence in providing services that are culturally sensitive to meet the client’s cultural needs. A social worker needs to understand the