Cultural Biography

Mini Assignment B
Latifah Larry
10/22/2013

This assignment is contains a brief cultural biography. Below I have shared some of my personal cultural experiences, roles, and cultural awareness inventory.

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Cultural Biography What does cultural awareness mean to me? When I think of cultural awareness I think about the concept of overcoming cultural bias, practicing cultural sensitivity, respecting others belief system without being judgmental and analyzing them according to my standards. This assignment allowed me to recognize my growth and examine my preconceived views. Although I have perfected a few areas, I oftentimes battle with others. Roles After collectively gathering all of my roles past, present, and future, I thought of how each role composed the woman I am today. Being a daughter has set the foundation of unconditional love, understanding, and survival skills. My mother taught me how to cook, clean, style my hair, and most importantly, to stand firm in what I believe in. As an older sister, I have learned to be nurturing, caring, and accountable for someone other than myself. I am a role model for my siblings and as a result, have to be mindful of the choices that I make. As a friend, I have developed listening skills and patience. Over time, my close friends have become more like family. They have played a major role in my decision to become a social worker; by means of endless nights of mediating and advising I had finally found my niche. Becoming a mother was the scariest role of them all. This role was like none other because I was solely responsible for the lives of others. Feeling like there was little to no room for error and the slightest mistake would result in me failing as a parent. As time moved forward I realized that parenting was based on trial and error and mistakes were going to be made, but these mishaps did not make me a bad parent. Although being a wife was not everything that I had hoped for, it was a major learning experience. Valuable lesson were learned regarding change and expectations. Change is something someone has to be willing to do because they want to, not because of the expectations that you have for them. Unfortunately, that change did not present itself until it was far too late. According to Furtado, Marcn, and Sevilla (2013), failed marriages between couples of different cultures can be a direct result of their cultural differences. More times, couples are not willing to compromise their beliefs and traditions to accommodate his or her spouse. Becoming a college student was one of the most challenging roles I have ever been faced with. Prior to enrolling in college I had already been out of school for 15 years. After going back and forth with my decision a million times, I finally decided to give it a shot. The beginning was rough, I felt out of place and due to low test scores I was placed in a learning support math course. Proceeding the first day of class I realized that majority of the students in learning support were fresh out of high school. From that moment on I kept pushing and no matter how difficult things became at times, I did not give up. Needless to say, following four long years of hard work and tears, I am a senior with a 3.50 GPA. Which brings me to my final role; social worker, I realized that with the absence of any one of these roles I would not be the person I am today. A perfect blend of all of my roles will provide me with the knowledge and experience needed to be the best social worker I can possibly be.

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Americanization In early 2007, I decided to move from Philadelphia, PA to Grayson, GA in an effort to start over and provide my children a better quality of life. The experience was like no other, it was extremely different from the environment that I had become accustomed to back home. As I had hoped, the academic curriculum was much more advanced, but to my surprise single women were frowned upon in my community. Although I had been placed in several positions where my race and marital status seemed to cause concern, the pros outweighed the cons so we stayed. As time went on, more single parent African American families began to migrate to my community which made things a little more comfortable for my family and I. Things were far from perfect, but they were easier to tolerate. Even though we were never directly confronted regarding these issues, we would often find ourselves being asked questions like: Will your husband be joining us?, Where is your father and why doesnt he live with you?, or the infamous How do you do it by yourself with three children. After about a year or two things seemed to get better or maybe I just learned to cope with it. Whatever it was I do not regret the decision that I made seven years ago. Life is going to be perfect in the world we live in, but if I had to do it all over again I would. I have met great people and more importantly, I have provided my children with options other than street corners and prisons. Cultural Awareness Inventory My first encounter with cultural awareness was back in 2001 when I met my 2nd best friend Marsha and we visited her hometown in Jamaica, W.I. Previously, I had never experienced cultural awareness because I never felt like I had a reason to respect any culture than my own. I was often judgmental and forced my belief systems on others; if they did not do the way I did they were weird. As I think back to that time, I realize that I did not value other cultures beliefs, I behaved as if my culture was the dominate culture in all other cultures were subordinate in my eyes. I have learned so much since then and as a result went on to marry my ex-husband who is also from Kinston, Jamaica. I have since become more culturally aware and sensitive. Over time I have obtained a great deal of knowledge in regard to other cultures such as food, language, traditions, music, and belief systems therefore, I have become more culturally aware. According to Streets (2011), cultural immersion experiences provide concentrated, direct, substantial, and meaningful interactions with multiple elements of a target culture for the purposes of promoting cross-cultural competency. Intersectionality Internally I am educated and I am a good mother, sister, daughter, friend, and student. I am also compassionate, a great listener, and culturally aware. Externally, I am an African American female that has endured many of the same issues that my future client has. As a result of this blind I think I will be a great social worker because I may be able to relate to what my client is going through. Following a number of real life experiences, I do not think that any culture is subordinate to my culture. As a social worker I will check my biases at the door and an effort to better understand my clients needs and I will try to offer the best possible solution.

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Conclusion In closing, I am confident that at this point in my life being culturally aware and sensitive is not a concern for me anymore. I admit that I do have other issues to work on regarding bias behavior, but I do not think culture is one of them. I am sure that the combination of experience, exposure and education has defiantly made me more knowledgeable regarding cultural awareness.

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References

Furtado, D., Marcn, M., & Sevilla, A. (2013). Does Culture Affect Divorce? Evidence From European Immigrants in the United States. Demography, 50(3), 1013-1038. doi:10.1007/s13524-012-0180-2 Streets, B. (2011). How Deep Is Your Commitment? Crossing Borders Via Cultural Immersion. Issues in Teacher Education, 20(2), 67-79.