Personal Narrative: Becoming A Correctional Officer

Knowing where your ancestors come from can sometimes be a difficult thing to handle and understand. If you have a notion of yourself before you receive actual news as to where your bloodlines reside, It shatters your previous thoughts and causes you to feel like an outsider. You begin to question your cultured norms and habitual daily tasks. After reading the story “Color Lines” by author Ralph Eubanks, I was able to take away that in the 1950’s and 1960’s, “…The American South was a place where the idea of race and identity determined who you were and your place in the world – You were either black or white.” Ralph talks in his story about how dangerous it was to be related to white people: severe . Severe social consequences awaited any black

Even though, one parent is black and one parent is white. They still have to learn how to face discrimination as among black children. They are just less likely to be more criticized. They usually view themselves as neither black nor white. Because the mixed families must conform to a racially divided system. As Butler Sweet-, Colleen said, “The transcendent identity, or refusing to have any racial identity is particularly interesting because it questions the need for a positive black identity all together.”(Butler Sweet-, Colleen 2011)

The purpose of my research paper is to build awareness, which has been disconnected between the two groups. This paper will underline the very basis of the chasms that have caused this disconnect between African-Americans and Africans. Awareness is essential

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

Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a

Understanding this will help one realize how they are. In the article, ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ Obama mentions a girl name Joyce from college who was part Italian, part French and part Native American and states her struggle with people trying to label her. “I’m not Black… I’m multiracial… Why should I have to choose between them? …They’re the ones who are telling me I can’t be who I am.” (Smith, 2008) In this quote, Joyce tells that she is multiracial, meaning she is accepting all roots. When she says that people are trying to tell her she can’t be who she is, she is not agreeing to make others comfortable. However there are also people that do not want to accept their roots, specifically their genetics. In the previous article, ‘DNA rewrites history for African-Americans,’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not want to embrace the fact that he was 50% white and 50% black. ““I’ll never see my family tree in quite the same way,” Gates says on the PBS show program, “I have the blues. Can I still have the blues?”” (Willing, 2006) After discovering his true heritage, Gates did not want to accept his ‘new’ identity, but instead rejects it, unlike Joyce. When he denies his identity it only hurts him because he does not recognize his entire

The growth of identity is a practice molded by a person’s family history, environmental experiences, and societal attachments. Identity endures ordeals to make the person secure and attentive so that it’s easier for the person to know what to expect out of their life. Although changes in our surroundings can be accepted, adjustments to one’s identity can often be challenging. Particularly in African American identity, there is difficulty in accepting who one is and knowing one’s place in society. There is an even greater difficulty if one is a biracial African American.

I have witnessed many of my friends feel saddened to the fact that they aren’t a certain shade of color. Being a certain hue in the black community even comes with an automatic identification. People of the darker shade are said to be “lazy, complacent, and ignorant” while the lighter shade are seen as the opposite (na ).In an article called black on black racism the writer Theodore Johnson points out the many opportunity differences light skinned black people have that dark-skinned people don’t (Johnson). Intra-racism has caused a divide between two of the same that need to stand with each other than against each other. Many may or may not understand the importance of intra-racism awareness but I will discuss the effects that intra-racism has on the black

Although slavery was formally abolished in 1865, many African Americans were still treated quite unfairly and were not accepted as equals into the American society. White Americans during this era were seen as superior and possessed institutional power that no dark-skinned person could ever have. To surmount this inequality, those who were considered as ‘mulatto’ (of both Black and White racial identity) had the ability to ‘pass’ — in which a mulatto would be mistaken as White. Even with this ability, as generations go on, many African Americans lose their history. Families began to continue living a passing lifestyle, leaving individuals ignorant to their roots. They begin to lose their heritage and living the unknowing life of something that

Although there were laws formed to “help” blacks from such hardships, these laws really put in power the sacred protection of white supremacy and the keeping of blacks’ oppressed but being of mixed race came with some better opportunities, but for others it was a battle.

As a kid I had never heard a comment that made me really question my racial identity. I always saw others as my friends or family and not by their skin tone. Going for the zoo lights had made me extremely uncomfortable for many reasons. The reason behind that being that I heard racist comments about my cousins and I that made me question my own racial identity for the first time. Having trouble with racial identity will cause us to have varied feelings about fitting in and filling our full potential based on outside influences and treatments from others.

My mother is Polish and Italian but my father is African American so growing up as a biracial person was always somewhat of a challenge. My relatives my my mothers side always saw my siblings and I as somewhat outsiders because we bared many physical differences from many of them, whereas when I encountered my fathers side of the family it always started out that I was more similar to them but I ended up not being like them enough to be fully accepted as one of them either. It is interesting because some see me as belonging more to a “white” culture and some see me more associated with “black” culture making me feel as though I never really belonged to either. It impacts my identity because at times it can make me feel as though there is not

Although my identities create shared experiences, sometimes it conflicts with those who don’t share my identities. In some cases, I assume people view me as a stereotypical black person because I’m black. In “Defining Racism” by Tatum, she talks about how people can internalize stereotypes because of racism. Growing in the United States, the

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.

In all my years of ignoring and displacing my ethnicity it had hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. I was a young black woman, a member of one of the most fundamentally scorned racial subgroups, and I could either be the victim or the victor.