Personal Narrative: My Race

Hi, Julie. I had never thought about the white culture. It took me awhile to look at everything as a whole and to point out what I believe is white culture. For example, July 4th, Thanksgiving, hamburgers, hot dogs, baseball, and football. Although I am half Hispanic, my father raised me in a white American culture. Granted part of my personal white culture included traditions from my Irish and English heritage. I began to celebrate my Hispanic heritage in my early 20's.

“Final call girl’s four by eight-hundred-meter relay” called the official. The Ontario Track girl’s four by eight-meter team trooped up to lane one, in unison. I would not have wanted to be racing with anyone else but my relay family. We had trained all season for this one race. Every workout, asthma attack, tear, and shin splint has lead up to this one race to break a twenty year old school record. As we jogged with the official from the bullpen to the starting line, the crowd had uproars of excitement for the athletes. An immense smile grew across my face, not only from the ecstatic crowd, but from the anticipation to race. I approached the starting line, in the first lane, while my teammates arrayed along the fence with the other second,

Too black for the White kids, yet somehow too white for the Black kids, oh the perils of a cappuccino mixed race kid. But it’s true. My life since I was young, at least younger than my eighteen year old self, has been about which group do I most fit in with. Between the four school changes over the course of twelve years, all in white suburban towns I’ve molded myself into an array of characters.

I am an African American. You must be wondering what’s my name since im “black”, you might be thinking that its ghetto, right? No need to know where I came from, you must think that I come from the projects right? It’s not like it’s important to you. You probably think that my future plans are that I won’t finished high school and that I will become pregnant. One look at the color of my skin is all it takes. Right? Look again.

I am a spoiled rich kid. I live in an upper middle class town located in one of the prosperous countries in the world. I attend to a competitive school with qualified teachers who care about their students. I have seemingly endless opportunity to participate in my community or gain experience in a job. I have fair skin, living in a world where is being Caucasian is advantageous.

Hanna screamed “ You will do great, let’s go ladies!” The gunman had yelled, “Runners to your mark…” Snap!

My Race is Caucasian. My Ethnicity is a German- American. My father was adopted from southern Germany at age of two, into an Italian military family. My mother’s parents came from southern Germany, after world War two. I grew up going to a German afterschool program, where I learned the German language and culture. I am able to speak, write, and understand a fair amount of German. I also danced and was part of a German-Bavarian club until age 12. My sex is female. I believe that my social class would be upper middle class, however, on the lower side of upper middle class. I technically live in Mount Kisco NY, however I went to Chappaqua schools. I spent all of my time in Mount Kisco, my best friend in high school, also was not from Chappaqua

In life many times those who come from nothing and excel, neglect the past and forget where they have come from. Oftentimes this comes in the form of disregarding old friendships, shunning once close family members, or even publicly disowning their own culture on national news networks. When reflecting on Mr. Brown’s quote, I am reminded of my own maxim by Marcus Garvey, which states “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. However, I say this not solely within the focus of my Black heritage, but within the context of my home town and school. As I claim the blessings that have been bestowed upon me, I make it my priority to encourage others to reach for the same, if not better. To do so, I have worked hand in hand with my principle to reform my school’s dismal college acceptance rate of 40%. However,

I do not particularly like when people use this phrase so lightly and to refer to something that is presumably in style. I have not used it myself, even when growing up when it used to be “acceptable”. I personally have a cousin that it’s a few years older than me and due to the era and country we grew up, the resources, for the children and the parents as well, were not available. Her disability was extremely severe strike and my aunt had to put her in an institution, even when she didn’t want to. I did hear other people using the term and it did stroke a chord every time someone would say it – even to this day.

My race is black. I feel like I always be constrained due to my race. I’m proud to be black and love that im black. Being blacks haves it benefits. Thought out history we is as being strong and can get thought a lot of things. A lot of people doubt us but us proving them wrong. Black people are making history in many different ways, ways that you never thought would happened. We our getting degrees. We our becoming presidents. Building and owning our own business. We doing thing that people thought we wouldn’t do. The only thing about my race is that a lot of us our getting killed by cops. They say it not a race thing but to me it is. Every day you see an example of this on the news. A white person kill cop or just people. They just get handcuff

I’d like to say I’m a very unique person. Not because of my hair, the way I dress, or how I look, but because of the unique things I bring with the person I am. All my life I’ve been the minority. From my preschool, to my church, my elementary and high school. Being black is something I embrace. I love my melanin skin tone, my nappy hair and I love teaching others about being a young black educated women. It hasn’t always been like that though. For majority of my life I use to try and fit in with the crowd. I use to always wear my hair straight so I could look like the girl standing next to me. My natural hair was beautiful too my mom and everyone else around me, but I felt like I had to step up and wear my hair straight everyday just to feel

Hello my name is Trenard Jackson. I’m 20 years of age I am from Prattville, Al . I will be telling you about my experience of being black. Being raised by a single mother of 5 boys but also by my father of many wives and 3 mixed race kids. I never could actually find myself or at least I didn’t know how to. I always had diverse friends. Growing up I would visit my white friend house almost every weekend and they taught me how to present myself as a intelligent young man I am today. When I left they’re house I would go back home to this dysfunctional home I would be taunted with words from my older siblings with words like “ did you have fun over your white friend’s house.” or things like “did you enjoy your new family”.

The area I live in offers few opportunities for improving race relations; in fact, there is very little racial diversity in my region. Nevertheless, I am ready to promote better race relations at every chance. Yes, the scale on which I work is small, but it still helps to push our society to become more accepting. I have never participated in a large event or social rights movement, but I still try to make my mark.

Two years ago I joined a no-cut rowing club. At the time I was not what you would call athletic. I took up the sport because I thought it resembled rowing a whitewater river raft. I couldn't have been more wrong in my life.

The whit jelly bean fits my personality the best. Firstly white’s surroundings are very neat and organized. This fits me because my room and backpack are always clean and everything has its own place. I love being clean and organized which is one reason white fits me. Secondly whites like to know the exact requirements to their work before they start. When writing a paper or doing some other work I like to know exactly how to do what I am asked so I do not mess up. When I know the exact requirements for my work I am more confident in my work. Thirdly whites are very deliberate when making decisions. This fits me because when faced with a decision I think of all the consequence before I make my choice. When I know I made the right