Running Heading: Cultural Biography

Tierra Benn
Georgia State University
Cultural Biography

Cultural Biography
Introduction
I was born on October 29,1989 at 10:47pm at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. I
was delivered by Dr. Anderson; he was not my mothers primary obstetrician but his back-up, Dr.
Lightfoot was out of town at a medical conference. I decided to make my appearance early, my
original due date was November 8,1989. My mother, Paula Henderson, is an African-American
female, who was 26 years old at the time of my birth. She had graduated from Atlantas Henry
Grady high school in 1981 and she attended both Oglethorpe and Georgia State Universities
although she did not receive a degree from either. She was struggling to find herself. My father,
Terence Benn, who is also African-American, had attended Grady High School also, that is
where my parents met. My father was a star running back for the football team. My parents
started dating their senior year. My father entered college in 1981 to play football. He got a
major leg injury that side lined him. He struggled to recover and ended up on drugs. During
this time, he also began seeing someone else and had three kids by another woman by the time I
was born. I have three older half siblings two males and one female with whom I have no
relationship because of the unhealthy situation of the adults. I was raised in a single parent
household. Due to my mothers struggling we only lived in areas where the people I knew or
had any interactions with were black like me. It was not until I entered elementary school that I
interacted with someone other than blacks for the first time.
Positionality/Multiple Identities
At Guice elementary school, which I entered in the second grade, I met Hispanic kids who were
in my class for the first time. When I entered middle school at Samuel Inman in Atlanta I began
to interact with white kids, Asians, blacks who recently came here from Africa and Hispanics. I
did not think about or know about cultural identity at that time. I was simply, Tierra Benn,
female, student and African-American. When I entered high school at Henry Grady, my parents
alma mater, I was introduced to staff that had known my parents, so now I was Tierra Benn,
female, African-American, Grady Knight and daughter of Paula and Terence. It was also at
Grady that I got my first boyfriend in tenth grade and a new identifier girlfriend to Jeremy
Lowery. I also became a member of Health Occupation Students of America that year. This
organization is for high school kids interested in careers in healthcare. Through my affiliation
with HOSA I went to other schools in Atlanta and to other states to interact with kids who shared
a similar interest. It was also on an outing with this organization that I encountered racism for
the first time.
Dilemmas of Americanization
I knew that I was a black person, but I had never been treated differently because of my skin hue
in the Atlanta area. It was on a trip with my HOSA chapter to Nashville, Tennessee that I
encountered racism. When we were headed out of town we stopped at a strip mall it was either
in extreme north Georgia or Tennessee close to the boarder. It was at this location that me and
some female HOSA mates entered a store that sold costume jewelry. We, me and four other
black girls, entered the business that occupied by an all-white staff and white customers. When
we entered it instantly got extremely quite you could literally hear a pin drop. We broke apart,

Cultural Biography
and me and two other girls went to the earrings and two other girls went to another area in the
store. At that moment the lady stepped from behind and counter and asked in her most
unfriendly voice, youll need help with something?. We said no that we were simply looking.
She then said, we never had this many of youll in the store at the same time some of youll will
have to leave. We first thought that she meant teenagers, but Brittany who was a senior pressed
her by what she meant by youll. That is when she said, black people, you know youll steal.
We left the store and went to our advisor on the trip Mrs. Ukah. She told us that it would be
okay and that this, unfortunately was the kind of behavior that we would encounter with whites
that based things off of stereo types and did not know black people. I however was devastated. I
at fifteen had never been treated this way in Atlanta where I went to school with different races
of people and interacted with them on a daily basis.
Family Culture
I have never really looked into my culture. Being a black person born in American with no
family member who knows where we originated from. I never thought beyond my maternal
grandmother or my paternal grandparents. They have no stories like Alex Haley of which part of
Africa we descended or who owned us. What we have is what we do as a family now. My aunts
and my mother try to bring us together on holidays and special occasion such as birthdays to
keep that family connection. I am a unique person. I am not truly African in the since that my
family members are recent immigrants. I am a black American whose ancestors were brought
here from Africa at some time in history.
Cultural Awareness of Another Inventory
I was born in Atlanta, capital of Georgia, and the city with the largest population. Per the Census
Bureau, Atlanta has a population of 463,878 people. As a child, I lived in the areas of the city
that were and still are predominately black. In my neighborhood, there was only one white
female, she had several black mixed race children. My contact with other races was very limited
as the only time I interacted with them was in school. As a child, I had no impression of other
races other than the fact that they had lighter skin and hair texture different from my own. My
impression was purely from limited contact with them in school as other races were not
discussed in my home. As an adolescent I lived in Hapeville an Atlanta suburb and in my area
the people were mostly of black decent. When I began to date, my romantic interests were black
like myself. When I was a child I had no impression of other races beyond the physical, and as I
grew older and was exposed to them more in elementary and middle school my impression
remained the same. However, as I grew older, studied history in high school and had my own
experience with racism my impression of whites began to change in a negative manner. I did not
understand them(whites) treating me badly or differently because of my skin color. I had not
done anything to harm another white or black. As a young adult, I lived in Forest Park another
Atlanta suburb and once again my neighbors were predominately black. I went to Atlanta
Technical college, Georgia Perimeter college and now Georgia State University. My degrees are
associates and I am working toward my baccalaureate. As a young adult, my friends are all
blacks and my romantic interests are black and I married a black man. My first job was with the
YMCA and most of the employees were black. I now live in Tucker, Georgia where the

Cultural Biography
population is mostly white. I work for Advance Auto parts store. Most of my coworkers are
Latino American or white. Throughout my life my contact with people of other races has been
minimal, limited to work and school.
Intersectionality (Internal and External)
I have never thought much about the effect that other people and my surroundings have had on
my cultural growth and identity. I now talk about race relations with my family and friends and I
realize that I do not have the kind of relationship with other races that I would like to have
because the opportunity has not presented itself in my life. There had been limited times other
than school to interact with people other than on a superficial level. College and internship
although a learning experience has also not given me the chance to interact with other races on a
deeper level. My site supervisor Amanda a white woman has been a good lead and has given me
bits of knowledge but even my contact with her has been limited as I work more closely with the
other advocates under her who are black. How does a person of another race truly get to immerse
herself in another culture? Going to cultural events and interacting in school still does not give
you the knowledge of other people and the way they live on a deeper level. It is simply a surface
view. The outside world has been the biggest and worst place to learn cultural competency.
Considering the presidential election and the time leading up to it, American seemed to some to
become a world of us versus them. With whites pitted against Blacks, Hispanics and anyone of
color or a different religion or of the haves and the have-nots with the rich against the poor. Is
there truly a such thing as being culturally competent or is one simply being human and treating
others the way they would wish to be treated.
Conclusion
Living life has made me the person that I am, culturally aware. I respect others no matter their
race, ethnicity, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. I believe that everyone desires and deserves
that. I am now simply more aware of some small things that I did not know but I am truly no
smarter now than before when it comes to others cultures. I had fun interacting with the others at
the various festivals. It was great to see others in their cultures but I was still an outsider simply
looking in.