Cultural Identity 2 Essay

Submitted By K_Johnson56
Words: 2917
Pages: 12
Open Document
Cultural Identity Paper

Growing up, I felt like the average kid. I had parents, I went to school, and I had siblings. In that way, pretty much every child is the same. I never thought about it at the time but there were some things that may have given me an advantage over the other children. Nothing drastic, but it may have changed the way that people perceived me compared to the other students because, let’s be honest, everyone judges a book by it’s cover.
Socio Economic Status Before my parents got divorced we had it all; a big house with a room for both of my sisters and myself, a huge back yard with a porch, and a pool. We had the American dream. A mother and father both working and bringing in a great income into a great house to support their three beautiful daughters. There was a point in time when my mom would take me to the Disney store in the mall and spend $100 on a giant teddy bear just because she felt like spoiling me. My parents got divorced when I was very young though. When I was in preschool they split up. The change in my socio economic status was eye opening. My mother, my sisters, and I moved around a bit until we finally settled in two hours away from the rest of our family. My mom worked a full time job and went back to school. We ended up on a dead end road full of run down duplexes. It was a two bedroom so the three of us kids had to squeeze into one small room. The place was so disgusting when we moved in my mom wouldn’t even let us sit on the floor to watch tv, she would make us bring in the kitchen chairs. Fortunately, my mom was able to save up enough money to cover the basics and we got new carpets and painted the walls in every room. We did everything we could to make the place live-able but that still doesn’t change the location or the size of the place we were living and growing. We ended up growing up on our own. My mom was always gone at work or school. We learned to manage on our own. From first grade and on it was my job to get my two younger sisters home from school safely, help them with their homework, make them dinner, give them baths, and put them to bed. Which, looking back, is probably the reason we’re so close today. Then later that night, my mom would come home from school and send me to bed. I learned quickly that that’s how the working middle class live. I didn’t have the big house with the pool in the back yard anymore. I had the two bedroom duplex on the dead end street. At a young age that’s hard to understand but now I know that my mom was doing everything she could do to make a better life for my sisters and I. It’s still a never ending battle. I feel like once you’re in a certain level of the economy you don’t really leave it. My family and I were lower middle class. I just got my own apartment this past month and I’m still in the same class. It’s very hard to go above and beyond the different classes but, being from the lower middle class, I feel like I’ll be able to understand what some of the children are going through. I already know that most of my extra money will be going to my students because that’s exactly what I did when I was teaching my own students in high school. I’ll always be there to help my students, even if it’s financially. I think this will make me empathize with any students that I have that are going through a rough divorce or a financial situation. I knew what it was like to have nice things and then have them taken away, seemingly overnight. I don’t think I would ever hold something against students that were privileged though. Everyone wants more for their children so who am I to feel “jealous” of a child whose parent is giving them more. I know when I have my children I want to be able to give them what they want.
Ethnicity and Race A little blond haired, blue eyed, white girl seems to be the poster child of innocence. Not that I needed to use that defense. I was innocent. All through school I was
Show More

Related Documents: Cultural Identity 2 Essay

Multicultural Psychology Essay

Psychology? 1. Multicultural psychology: the study of cultural and sociocultural influences on behavior a. Cultural influences: e.g., culture of origin, U.S. cultures b. Sociocultural influences: e.g., minority status, discrimination 2. Cross model of racial identity a. Cross’s (1971) model was developed in an African American context b. Racial identity involves 4 stages: i. Pre-encounter 1. African Americans view the world as non-Black or anti-Black 2. African Americans view European Americans as superior…

Words 934 - Pages 4

Essay about Paragraphs On The Bora Ring

Ring Paragraph 1: The poet expresses an understanding of the significance of a physical place in representing cultural identity. In the poem, Bora Ring by Judith Wright, the poet expresses the significance of a place in representing cultural identity. In encountering a long abandoned Bora Ring, the persona is led to reflect on the significance of place in embodying cultural identity. This highlights the impact of white settlement on Indigenous culture and the ceremonial site that embodied Aboriginal…

Words 918 - Pages 4

How Do African Americans Adapt To Chinese Culture?

to a new cultural environment, which is different from one’s own, undergoes the difficulties in transition to another type of life. People are constantly shocked by the local culture practice and simultaneously have to cope in order to avoid the obstacles such as in Information overload, language barrier, technology gap, skills and interdependency, homesickness, boredom and response ability. It is often oblivioushowever;cultural adaptation is inevitable for a person living in new cultural environments;as…

Words 579 - Pages 3

PSYCH620 Team C Outline For Final Project 1 Essay

Yanika Johnson PSY/620 Valarie Bradley-Holliday May 25, 2015 OUTLINE OF FINAL PAPER I. Introduction Religious beliefs and self-identity are among varied cultural factors that governments are expected to respect. Thus when setting national laws, governments should take into account diverse cultures to avoid violating the religious beliefs and self-identity of an individual, such as Muslim women. Muslim women have undergone mistreatment and discourses as violations of their human rights to…

Words 415 - Pages 2

Notes on Shelby's Essay

project. Basically, while Shelby things that 1) black culture is important and 2) it should be pursued, he doesn’t think that it should be part of a nationalist public agenda. There are several reasons for this. First, if blacks should pursue a national black public philosophy and black cultural autonomy should be a part of this agenda, then this means that individual blacks are morally obligated to promote black cultural autonomy. This means they would have to uphold at least some of the 8 tenets…

Words 1683 - Pages 7

Cultural Identity In Canada

Cultural Identity of the Aboriginal Population in Canada The residential school system in Canada is a network of church-run boarding schools. It was established by the government in 1840s to forcibly assimilate indigenous children coming into Canada from the First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities into the dominating Canadian culture (Hanson, 1). The system has tried to suppress and replace Aboriginal culture and identity by forcing the children attending these facilities to abandon their culture…

Words 1163 - Pages 5

Reflective Response 1 Essay

another. Speaking or expressing ourselves is a cultural act having the potential to be misinterpreted in intercultural situations. Although included in language teaching, culture has no consistent definition. Our assumption about culture affects the way we teach and learn about it. It is challenging to identify an approach to culture teaching within languages to achieve educational goals. Static culture views cultural knowledge as facts or artefacts. Cultural lesson is like providing pieces of information…

Words 614 - Pages 3

The Marrow Thieves

Jeri White Cunningham English 2 Honors Period 4 March 27th, 2024 The Marrow Thieves Theme Analysis Culture is defined as any manner of life that is passed down from previous generations to the next, including arts, beliefs/religion, way of dressing, language, and rituals. It’s what makes up communities and determines how they interact with others, the way they see the world, and ultimately shapes their identity. As discussed in the dystopian novel, The Marrow Thieves, the indigenous characters are…

Words 1878 - Pages 8

How Is Identity Formed

two people will ever be alike. Why is this the case? How is identity formed? The definition or meaning of identity can be different depending on who you ask, but what does it truly mean and how is it determined? A lot of different people have a lot of different things to say about identity, but an answer will only be found through thorough examination. A famous French psychoanalyst named Jacques Lacan believes that the start of identity is the period of time when infants start to recognize themselves…

Words 521 - Pages 3

Oodgeroo Noonuccal Analysis

died in 1993. 1. Being an educator, a writer and an establisher of Noonuccal Nughie Education and Cultural Centre at Moongalba, Oodgeroo Noonuccal had made a significant impact on Indigenous education and Australian society in fostering, maintaining and cultivating her own culture to young generation, supporting and encouraging them to grow up with their own distinct culture and their self-identity. At this point, I can see that Oodgeroo Noonuccal has impressed her culture as a real connection of…

Words 250 - Pages 1