FOR MATHGUY 18 ONLY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

6

Running head: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Subject:

Name:

Institution:

I had been raised up as a proud black girl. My mother and Father made sure that would help me reaffirm my sense of identity through photos of my great great- grandmother a full Indian. I could see myself through her. Thus, I was a very proud black girl and would often identify myself as African as opposed to African American. However, it was a while before I accepted who I was. Growing up as a black girl in a predominantly white neighborhood and school was not easy for me. Many of the Caucasian children of my age in the neighborhood approached me with general courtesy such as why is your nose so big? Why do you have big lips? In the beginning as a child I felt that I was like everyone else until others started pointing out my ethnic features. As I got older is started noticing that I was different. Expressed by both my parents that I was beautiful, it was not enough for validation. It did not help that both my dad and step mom had been very light skinned and could almost pass as Puerto Rican or mixed. The type of light skin that could burn and not get dark. They did not have to be the only black child on the volleyball team in middle school, or the only black girl in Girl Scouts. I started to gain a better picture of how they perceived black people in general. I often wished that I could go to a school that had more black people who were sharing my experience. Perhaps if there were more of us then we could confide in each other and show these other girls that there is absolutely nothing wrong with or awkward about being black (Sen, 2013).

Even in the black community and family no ones wants to be known as the dark one. Our culture brainwashed us to believe not to even marry another dark individual if yourself was dark. “Please don’t bring home a black ashy baby!”. Hearing that all the time, I am wondering but what about love? As a result of these thoughts, feelings I started feeling like I was an incomplete black girl. I kept all these issues to myself until I was an adult with two kids entering the military. There was a different type of discrimination. Gender discrimination.

In a dominate male organization it is very hard to achieve success in the right way. I have never been discriminated as a women and women of color until I entered the Army. TALK ABOUT THE FEMALES BEING IN THE ARMY

As an adult I now recognize that there were elements of white supremacy in the undertone of the comments being made by these girls. They thought that white girls were beautiful and naturally perfect. In the same breadth they thought much less of black girls. In effect they associated all the prominent features of black girls with ugliness such as the kinky hair. This clearly points to white supremacy. They believed in the superiority of features associated with white girls without any factual backing whatsoever (McIntosh, 2000).

Talk about the course and what affect it has on me. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Since its inception, the social work profession has been committed to developing health and

human services that promote diversity and alleviate and/or eliminate social oppression and

injustice. Rooted in the ecological perspective, social workers are aware of and can identify

large social structures and processes that can negatively impact the well-being of communities

and individuals. This course is an intensive examination of the dynamics of various forms of

oppression in U.S. society. The selection of the oppression of racism as a primary focus for the

course is deliberate. Through the analysis of critical race theory and intersectionality, students

will come to understand the reasoning for this emphasis. The course begins with an analysis of

racism from structural, social, psychological and applied perspectives. This approach then

frames the analysis of other forms of oppression, such as sexism, classism,

homophobia/heterosexism, etc.

The course is designed to stimulate critical thinking, heighten self-awareness to implicit biases

that we may carry, and develop systematic critical analyses that lead to identifying ways that

social workers can intervene and oppose oppression professionally and personally.

The course will explore the costs of oppression to all individuals (e.g., White supremacy) and

its differential impact on individuals in dominant and subordinate positions. The importance of

power and the dynamics of domination and subordination in all forms of oppression will be

explored. Practice issues will be examined in relation to multi-level interventions (i.e.,

individual, group, organizational and institutional).

Reflecting back on my life in middle school, military lifestyle and even now this experience leaves a lot to be answered on the degree to which parents either consciously or subconsciously imprint racist undertones onto their children. Social media has defined expand on the affects of social media My parents taught me to be a proud black girl because most of the stereotypes on the television on black people were negative. However, she did not teach me about presumably negative elements of people from other races. She was only focused on dispelling the massive stereotypes that were being advanced on black people and giving me a sense of identity. However, my peers were being taught that features such as the kinky African hair do not exemplify beauty. They almost managed to convince me that black girls were not beautiful. I am glad I know better now as an adult.

References

Frank, H. (Narrator). (2014, June 25). How cute! Is he yours? [Audio podcast]. In J. Solataroff& H. Frank (Producers).The longest shortest tim

Sen, R. (2013). The racist mind. Colorlines: News for action.

McIntosh, P. (2000). White privilege: Unpacking the individual knapsack. In P. Rothenberg (ed.), Race, class, and gender in the United States (4th ed., pp. 163-168). New York, NY: Worth.

Adams, et al. (2013). Readings for diversity and social justice (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.