Two African American Boys Analysis

One of the most intriguing and influential images included in Citizen by Claudia Rankine is the image entitled Blue Black Boy. Blue Black Boy is a visual work of art created by Carrie Mae Weems in 1990’s; Weems is a very successful female African American artist. Through a close reading of the image, I was able to derive meaning out of the various aspects that work together to create such an eloquent work of art.

In this video, Wise talks about how white privilege works in the modern society of the United States. That is the privilege which turns other people’s lives invisible. No media investigates on the victims of discrimination at an institutional level, hence their voices can never be heard. Moreover, white people do not have an opportunity (and necessity) to know about the reality of the people of color, thus the existence of racism has been denied by the white in every generation. Meanwhile, those who are nonwhite should have learned the white reality, culture, and life, to survive in the society. Even in academic environment, they constantly need to worry about whether their academic underperformance would trigger the negative racial stereotype. In this regard,

My mom brought me to America in 2002. This move was difficult as I had to leave my family behind. Up until then, I grew up in the midst of a large, extended family. I had cousins to play with and multiple adults to spoil me. Furthermore, moving to an entirely different continent where the culture and environment was different from what I was used to, did not help. I experienced quite a bit of culture shock and language became a problem. Those first few months when I could not communicate with my new classmates were lonely. On top of that, seeing my parents work so hard to build a new life in a country where we had no family to rely on, made me hate our situation. However, being an immigrant taught me some valuable lessons and shaped who I am today. At an early age, I learned to become more independent, more responsible. I had to learn to do certain tasks, such as making my lunchbox, doing my homework, by myself. I had to learn to adapt and to appreciate what we had. Each new place we moved to, I experienced something new. In Ohio, I learned what chicken tenders were. In New Jersey, I experienced my first snowfall. In Texas, I bought my first pair of cowboy boots. As I grew up, I learned to treasure what the United States had to

The video about discrimination was the most awkward video I have ever watched. Conversations depicted in the video were real everyday conversations but they were conveyed in an awkward manner, which made it hard to watch. I did learn that discrimination and prejudice was an important issue on the University of Oklahoma’s campus. I also learned that people are basically the same. One other fact I found interesting was the fact that white males were not depicted at all, except for being the villain, in the video.

Education was becoming expensive as we progressed. My mom and dad worked tirelessly to provide us with a quality education, and they tried their best to conceal their efforts, but we saw their efforts which motivated us to succeed. While advancing toward the10th grade, my parents concluded that they would not have been able to continue paying for our education and were left with the choice of sending us to obtain a subpar education, or to send us back to America. But living without the support of my parents was near impossible for

My parents and grandparents are from Nigeria. I was born and raised in Nigeria. After my father died in the year 2000, I was only eight years. Two years’ later, my mother emigrated into the United States. she brought my siblings and myself five years after she came to America. The socioeconomic status of my family is middle class, all my siblings are self-sufficient and my mother is a stayed home hair stylist. Prior to my siblings and myself, my parents ended their education in sixth grade. Therefore, they emphasized education to us because they did not have an opportunity to afford education. My grandparents were underprivileged and in Nigeria, you could not go to school without money. School was a priority in our family but ever since

I had just completed eighth grade and was about to enter ninth, when we moved to the U.S. My family was very happy in their native country of India; the only reason the decision was made to move, was because of me. My parents wanted me to be assured of a good education, which would enable me to enjoy a much better life in the future. When I began ninth grade in the U.S., I finally realized how important it was that I concentrate diligently on my schoolwork in order to succeed in my education and also, start taking on some increased responsibilities. I have an older brother who is disabled, so I am the only hope for my parents, to eventually help take care of my family. My parents have always taken care of me, for the most part, so I believe I have a responsibility to take care of them, as well.

I moved here with my parents when I was 6 years old. Both my mom and my dad worked very hard so they could get a nice house, and they sent me to a public school. School was confusing because I had a tutor who helped me learn to speak English, but I still had a very strong accent. One day, while I was practicing German with my tutor, the principal called me down to the office. So, I went down to the principal’s office.

Since I was a little girl in the Dominican Republic, my parents have taught me that “education is the most important thing and the only thing that I should have on my mind”. By the age of 10, I was in a private program that selected about 50-75 students in the country to give them an education and bring them to the United States to study a career. The school hours were from 8 AM to 2 PM and I would get home, eat and change into the other school uniform so that I could arrive at the US program by 3:30 PM. I had to walk about a mile and a half, “back and forth” every day, with my siblings depending on me to take care of them and bring them home safely. When I finally got home for the day, I would take a shower and do all of my homework from both schools, and the next day repeat the same routine over and over again.

My family and I depended on my father for a paycheck every month to pay for bills and groceries, but one month the paycheck never came. My father had lost his job from Caterpillar in Decatur, Illinois. When it happened, I was in third grade, and I had no worries, didn’t care about how I looked, and made sure that I was doing well in school. My younger brothers were in kindergarten and preschool at the time, were six and three years old, and only cared about the toys they wanted from the store. My mother was a stay at home mother, and tended to the house and all of our needs at home when it occurred. My father had lost his job, my family lost the paycheck that paid for everything.

My father came to the United States at the age of 19 as an exchange student. He arrived to America, thinking he could come home after 4 years, but at the end of those 4 years, his hometown was gone. On the other hand, my mother is a whole different story. My mom was raised in the countryside of Tayninh, Vietnam. Along with having 4 brothers, she was the second eldest out of her siblings. At the age of 24, my mother had went onto a boat that sailed into the refugee camps of Malaysia. My mom had to stay for about 6 months until she went on to another camp in the Philippines to study English and American culture. My mother had no money and she had to work in fast food restaurants, earning low wages as well as studying English. This made her life harder with her limited English as well as trying to fit in with American culture. Because I was born and raised in the United States, it was easier for me to fit in with American culture,

Moving to the United States at 13 years old was a challenging experience, mostly due to the language barrier and the different cultures. When my family and I moved to Pennsylvania, we moved in with my brother and his wife. It was a very big adjustment, different language, culture and so much diversity. I had lots of mixed emotions, I was scared about the different language and the schools were bigger than I had ever seen before. Yet I was also excited about learning all the different cultures from my classmates, as there was so much diversity in my school, something that schools in Puerto Rico lacked. So there we all got along in a program called International School, everything was going great and we were all adjusting pretty well to moving to a different country.

Growing up during my childhood was arduous as I had parents who knew little English since they mainly only knew Amharic. This eventually led to my parents to coerce me of attending speech therapy to avail my communication skills in my early years of elementary school since my doctor diagnosed me of having an speech delay. Both my parents also never obtained an education in the U.S. as my mother stayed home to raise me and my father needed work three jobs to support our family at the time, which meant I rarely noticed him throughout my childhood since he was either working or reposing for his next job.

I was born in Queretaro Mexico, along with my 4 siblings. My parents decided to move to another country for a better life, for all of us. At the time I was only three years old, so I don’t remember everything that happened. This was life changing, but not just for me, for my parents too. This was a chance for them to start over and provide a better future for us. So we left with the clothes on our backs and took the money we had and fit ourselves in our small suv, at the time my mother was pregnant. From Mexico my parents took us to Florida where we had family. They gave us a place to stay and even a change of clothes. Eventually my dad decided to move to North Carolina, and that's where we are today. But because of what we did, the only person who could have a job was my dad. In time, he saved up enough so that we could go back to Mexico and come back the correct way. This process took almost two months to complete. Although my mother wasn’t able to go with us, she would eventually have the opportunity in the near future.

Coming to the United States and adapting to a new language and culture, shaped me into the young man I am today. I lived in a small town known as, “Pastoria” in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico. There are approximately 260 houses in my hometown. Everyone knew each other, spoke the same, dressed, and looked similar. Every morning, before leaving the house, my parents always told me to give my best in school since they were not able to continue their education after primary school (6th grade) due to economic reasons. My family’s economic status started to affect my education, and that is when my parents decided to come into the United States. When I first came into the United States, I was just 12 years old trying to take advantage of the