Personal Narrative: The Identity Of African Americans

All throughout time people have been “the other.” Pratt refers to the other as being “Someone who is perceived by the dominant culture as not belonging, as they have been

Today was a great day, it was time for someone to make a change. Four African American college students were brave enough to start the change and they were Blair, Richmond, McCain and McNeil, they attend the same college as I do, but I don’t really talk to them as I might get caught from the professors or even my peers and can get a beaten.

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.

When I think of America, I think of one sole word: determination. Our history is a medley of spectacular accomplishments and now-realized mistakes. We’ve struggled with issues that appear to be simple, yet the effects of past hardships can still be felt today. For example, we thought we had ended racism by making African-Americans equal under law, after the civil rights movement, but this same issue has merely developed into social discrimination. Despite the problems that remain and evolve with us through time, the most defining attribute every American has is their will-power to achieve their dreams. To many, these dreams are to end racial, gender, or sexual orientation discrimination. To many, these dreams may even be as seemingly simple

My parents have always taught me that everyone is equal doesn't matter the race, gender, or economic class. Unfortunely stereotyping is among us we cannot avoid it, we can only try our best to make a difference between millions in the world. At a early age we start to doing it without noticing just having groups at school, the cool kids, the nerds and the popular kids. When I was about nine years old we had to move to a different city, I was sad because that meant a new school and friends. The neighborhood we moved into most of the population was African American and Asians this was a new experience for me and my family. My perspective of African American was that they were bad, untrustworthy and criminals. Sometimes

I interviewed an African American male in his 50s. This means he is in the middle adulthood stage of life. One of the biggest challenges that he faces is being black in America. He seemed to have a whole lot to say about this concept and struggle that he faces. Every day, all over the country, criminal activity is happening at a seemingly higher and higher rate. The evil that inhabits the globe can never be ended. There are few people, still, who choose to try. The police, the government, the news teams, all of these groups of people are supposedly dedicated to awareness and driven to push crime down to a minimum by alerting the people and keeping the peace. A self-governing species as they are, humans are prone to error, fallibility, and imperfection,

I grew up here in the U.S.A and my parents from the U.S also. I live in an ethnically diverse community that the residents show a deeper understanding of their ancestry’s culture. The term of senses that I witness is sight and audio. Since on the daily basis I hear, people speak other languages such as Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, French, and Japanese. In the term of sight, I see who are from Asian background bow to each, African American nod at each other when walking pass, and people just slight smiling at each other. From my culture since I am African American we really do not that many of greeting each other. We would slight nod or smile and make eye contact or for the males who do a doing the handshake and shoulder bump maneuver.

I woke up, dazed, taking in my surroundings. I was in some sort of white room with a security camera and a shiny black wall. Glass, maybe? Bang! The door to the room closed, drawing my attention. An African American man in a black suit was standing there. When had he entered the room? I couldn’t remember anyone coming in.

Life for me hasn’t been the easiest. I am a black woman who has to support her kid. No one ever treats me fairly. My job can barely put food on the table for my handsome 4 year old son who’s name is Grayson. My house is torn up and beat down. My floor is bare with no carpet, my room plain with no bed. My son’s life is half broken by having a white father and a black mother. My deceased husband died trying to save me two months ago when two rich white men came to my house and tried to kill us. I can’t say his name anymore. Saying his name is a just a constant reminder that life for a colored woman is not as clear or perfect as a crystal staircase.

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

Left, right, left right left! Eight states - in which you absolutely love or simply just hate- two elementary schools, five middle schools, and three high schools all throughout my childhood. At times I could not actually tell individuals where I’m from or even tell them who I truly was as a person. Having those moments where you never understood why you had to leave those friends that you created such a strong bond with. It doesn’t hit you until years that it’s just not society that emerges throughout life: it’s our allies that develops and matures, as do ourselves, and our tie with those friends (Flinn, J., 2004). I finally understand how moving every eighteen months has influenced my scope on society as a whole. It shows how “sites undergo

As an African-American women living in a modern society realistically I have a disadvantage over the majority. Those circumstances clearly manifest manifest in passive aggressive ways in my daily life. Ultimately, it trickle down to me going that extra mile to gain everyones approval in order to beat the typical stereotypes. This endless cycle allowed certain people to gain power in control. Meanwhile, as I press to prove my worth my value went down. One day I was reflecting on my life, specifically relationships and I realized that the people I tried to

I am thankful to say that I hopefully will have the opportunity to birth and rear you into a mature young man who will then flourish into a powerful, strong willed, black male. Your mother and I will chaperone you through your days of being an adolescent. Even so, the time will come when you will be forced to learn to accept yourself as a guide and move forward from that point into making your own decisions. Then from this point on, you will be in the pursuit of harnessing your manhood into what you find to believe it is meant to be. Challenges will seem to become your reality and they will have to be accepted, battled, and mastered.

As the tension boils, the melting pot of the world is slow turning into a roasting pot of racial tension and divided. A subject that has become so taboo and swept under the rug is now coming to light. Although its taken several horrible unforeseen events to bring these issues to the forefront at least the conversation is finally occurring (happening).