Growing Up In My Black Community

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 culture that was not inherited, thus putting behind the unique and significant characteristics

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

Each house-- painted a very vibrant, dazzling color, purple, orange, yellow, green, and pink. I had never seen houses like that in the United States the usual house colors are gray, white, tan, blue, very dull colors. The sight of these vivid houses was just a small glimpse of this beautiful country. As I nervously traveled without my family for the first time the lush terrain of Costa Rica dotted with colorful houses welcomed me.

Unlike many African Americans who attend church on Sundays, I attend Jummah on Friday’s and attend Eid festivities with Guineans around New York City, as well as carry myself the way Guinean females are raised: with a certain degree of modesty and reservation. In addition, due to my Guinean background, West-African name, and clear, modulated English, I am also an outsider to my neighbors in Brownsville currently, and was teased as a child. My drive and motivation to achieve the American Dream, especially for the sake of parents, in Brownsville, an inner-city African American, is seen as an affront to their perceptions of blackness. Many of my neighbors have confessed that they believe that “I am too good” or “act white.” However, despite this, when I am faced with racism or acts of white supremacy, I feel emboldened to act, where I do not call upon my Guinean identity. In those moments, I especially identify with the African- American identity. I feel a dire responsibility to assist African-American in my community, more so than I feel a responsibility to help my family members in Guinea. In all, when asked about my identity, I respond with, “My parents are from Guinea, but I was born in America.” I am comfortable, and again, proud to identify as a Guinean-American, despite the challenges with identifying as either. This conflict is drawn upon, once again, in Georges Woke Up Laughing where Schiller and Fouron

African Americans lived differently than white men did during the turn of the century. They faced many problems within the society. Some of the issues they faced were out of their hands. Although things were not the greatest all the time, there were supporters and organizations that they could turn to. Along with these organizations they had leaders that tried to help the race. Many African Americans became successful in the late 1920’s, and still to this day there are many African Americans that are successful.

Being black in America involves a process of moving through and adopting from many different cultures. As an African American, I am a descendant of one of the most unique diverse groups of people in America. Nearly all my ancestors carry some European and Native American DNA. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions; somehow, many of their practices, values, and beliefs survived, but over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. Black culture on another hand exists on multiple planes due to racism, economic and social condition, and location trends that draws from a variety of influences born both in and outside black communities.

•This course will illustrate African- American history, values, religion, politics, psychology of Africans coming to the Americas, and the development of African-American culture. Moreover AAS 100 will provide students with a sense of what the African American experience is and by doing so we talk about the American experience. This course will discuss:

One of the main issues that America has continued to ignore is the problems within the African -American community. Many children within the African- American community fail to get the necessary leadership from their respective parents. That lack of leadership generally occurs from the absence pf a father figure in the household. Reason may be because of a father being imprisoned for whatever reason, or the father being killed by law enforcement illegally. Thus, the more impressionable minds within the community commit illegal activities to get recognition from their peers. Indeed, these people should be punished for their acts by law enforcement. What the African- American community needs are not police enforcement in the citizens’’ daily

One’s community plays a huge role in their health behaviors. The African-American community must provide better opportunities and options for the homosexual men within their communities. Wishfully thinking, there should be a leader from every community that will be in charge of improving HIV/AIDS within their own neighborhoods/communities. Having someone with a personal connection to the community is a great asset because they know exactly what is going on and what will work and what will not.

That’s because you are not an ordinary person you’re an extraordinary person. I thank you being an African American woman I had defense my African American culture. Here’s one example I was in a 4.5 star restaurant, I walked away with a group of lady going into the same direction. A white lady turned around a single me out of the group asking if I can get her a glass of water. I pulsed and carefully collected my thoughts and said in these time I’ve could have ask you the same question it appear your intelligent enough to distinguish a waitress from a customer and those days are over and by the way the meal was amazing. For a minute she looked taken back until she thought about what I said and then she apologized. As I smiled because it could

I decided to do my annotated bibliography on Black American youth and racial identity. Each one of the articles that I have chosen addresses one or more of the issues in regards to sociocultural and international contexts that influence individual differences in the cultural group, how individual differences influence beliefs, values, and interactions with others and vice versa, as predictions on how interaction among diverse people can challenge conventional understanding of psychological processes and behavior. Young Black Americans often battle racial discrimination which can heavily influence how they perceive themselves as individuals and as members of their own racial

Race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, poverty, and sexual orientation, all play a role in developing one’s identity and more often than not, these multiple identities intersect with blackness. Being that American society has deemed colored people and populations as minoritarian subjects, African diaspora people can be seen making safe spaces for themselves to survive as individuals and as a part of communities.

Growing up, I always felt like an outsider. I yearned for a sense of belonging, but I would always have to bring myself to a constant realization about the implication of my existence—I was black and white, not one or the other, but both. The continual task of “checking one box” on surveys and papers didn’t really help the situation either. Being the product of an African-American father and an Irish-American mother made me appreciate and understand all the variations of race and culture in the spectrum, but it also left me in this murky-gray area with no sense of direction—a feeling that most multiracial

In my opinion, generally defining the black experience is a hard tasks to complete. Being that there are so many black people who experience different struggles on the daily basis, I think I wouldn’t do their experiences justice with a general definition. However, I can characterize the black experience as being personal, evolving, and sometimes relatable. In terms of those characterizations, relatable is the most impactful one, in my opinion.

Our culture is an engrained part of our genetic make-up that makes us who we are without any external influences. Society, religion, politics, sexual orientation, and gender choice are all factors which we have can choice to choose. Frederick Douglas writes when speaking to young “white” boys near the shipyard, “I wish I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men. “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life!” (Douglass) See Frederick’s choice has already been made for him through his cultural identity as being black. You choice to choose was stripped away they minute your Frederick’s parents stepped foot on the slave ship. This identity struggle still exists many centuries later. James Baldwin’s writes “There is a moment, in time, and in this place, when my brother, or my mother, or my father, or my sister, had to convey to me, for example, the danger in which I was standing from the white man standing just behind me.” (Baldwin) The world today cannot understand this cultural identity struggle that exist within the African American community because they have not lived through it. Well at least not on the opposite