Racial And Cultural Identity : I Am A White American

Overcoming stereotyping is a challenge educators can encounter when it comes to ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children. Some educators may compare one child to another child that comes from the same cultural background and use the same teaching strategy. One way to overcome this is to make sure that educators know each of the students individually instead of comparing one to another or relying on stereotyping. “To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness.” (Teaching Tolerance, 1991) Once they know more about each of the students then they can avoid stereotyping and adjust their teaching strategy to meet the individual needs of the students in the classroom.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

There are numerous ways to identify would I am. I am a african american female that is country and loves the outdoors mainly like mud riding . My cultural identity is important it’s part of me . it’s who I am . inside and out . My religion is very important to my family, when I become an adult my religion will pass on to my children. Growing up it made me realize that my cultural is like a oreo hard on the outside and and the inside is thing sweet person filled with joy and happiness .

Classrooms are becoming more diverse than they were several decades ago because so many people are migrating from their country of origin to seek for better living opportunities, in search of a safe place and because the United States of America is a super power. Therefore political, economic, and social-cultural reasons are the causes of migration which results in families remaining in the country causing classrooms today to be more diverse than they were decades ago thereby rapidly changing the demography of the United States and its classroom (Vacca et al, 2014, p. 62). To confirm this point for instance, at my school, there are a total of 354 students and the percentage of Hispanics: 41.5%, Blacks: 40.1%, Whites: 13.6%, Multicultural: 3.7%, other: 1.2%, Asians: 0.9%. Students from these different cultural backgrounds have different values, attitudes and experiences.

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

Like many White Americans, I do not have a strong sense of ethnic or cultural heritage. “White” has come to denote the majority, boring, bland culture. What is white culture? Put simply, it does not exist. Culture, defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is: “The beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a particular society, group, place, or time”. The US has a multitude of cultures, influenced by race, ethnicity, heritage, and region. Because of this, “white” culture does not exist, as race is not the sole determination of culture, and because there is such a mixture and distribution of white people in the US. Thus, it is necessary to go beyond “white” culture to find an identity, one that clearly defines

In the United States, there is a long history of unequal treatment among ethnic minority groups, particularly for African Americans. Unfortunately, this injustice also appears in education. Sociologists have affirmed the importance of education in shaping the economic and social prospects of individuals. As all communities in the United States have been diversified, it becomes crucial to recognize and properly deal with diversity within the classroom. All students should be guaranteed to have equal opportunities for quality education at school. However, racism is still prevalent in many schools today (Beswick, 4, 1990, Pennino, 2007). Racism now has different forms, like the individual instructions student can get from their teachers, and the acceptance of students among their classmates. These can have negative and lasting effects on students even when they leave school. Students must not experience any type of stereotyping, ethnic prejudice or racial violence in schools. Asante (2003) said: "Racism in education can not be overcome by the expression of goodwill, it must be constantly confronted in all conscious ways" (p.223).

The topic of “race”, is one that Americans have to confront every single day, whether we choose to consciously acknowledge it or not. As an aspiring educator, I am aware that I will encounter many situations regarding as race and be on the frontlines of the issue. It is important to know that there are credible and reliable resources out there to gain insight, and guidance, on something that is so crucial to youth of Americans. I say this because educators are on the front lines of this issue. While many parents are working eight hours a day, their children are not just learning how to properly, add or subtract, read and write, or the history of the human race; they are learning how to “fit” into society, what makes them unique and special,

In the United States, there is a long history of unequal treatment among ethnic minority groups, particularly for African Americans. Unfortunately, this injustice also appears in education. Sociologists have affirmed the importance of education in shaping the economic and social prospects of individuals. As all communities in the United States have been diversified, it becomes crucial to recognize and properly deal with diversity within the classroom. All studnets should be guaranteed to have equal opportunities for quality education at school. However, racism is still prevalent in many schools today (Beswick, 4, 1990, Pennino, 2007). Racism now has different forms, like the individual instructions student can get from their teachers, and the acceptance of students among their classmates. These can have negative and lasting effects on students even when they leave school. Students must not experience any type of stereotyping, ethnic prejudice or racial violence in schools. Asante (2003) said: "Racism in education can not be overcome by the expression of goodwill, it must be constantly confronted in all conscious ways" (p.223).

Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor once said that “we define our identity always in dialogue with, sometimes in struggle against, the things our significant others want to see in us. Even after we outgrow some of these others—our parents, for instance—and they disappear from our lives, the conversation with them continues within us as long as we live.” As a teenage boy making the transition from home to college, I can relate to Taylor’s argument. Growing up an American citizen made me want to participate and identify with the dominant American culture. However, as a son of two Indian immigrants, my parents expected me to uphold ethnic cultural values whether I agreed with them or not. As I transitioned into my first quarter at UCLA, I noticed that my identity was still in tune with what my parents preached to me at home. However, in school I faced pressure from peers and teachers to align with the “American” cultural identity. This was difficult for me as a first-generation Americans because I had to carefully balance the pressures of my ethnic cultural identity with that of my American identity in fear of being shunned by any one group. For this reason, has been difficult for me to establish a unique identity. The cultural question that I wish to explore, through my own life experiences and those of others, is how the fear of being socially exiled as a result of the clash of ethnic and American cultural expectations impact the development of my identity/persona as

Food is something that is not inherited, it is learned, much like culture. When I was about three years old, my parents moved from Argentina to America. Since all we knew was Spanish, we found ourselves associating with many other Hispanics. One thing that I find all these cultures have in common is food. Food is something that ties us all to our roots, to our families, to our heritage, to our culture. Argentina, Mexico, and America, my take on food shows my family’s migrations and changes, it is who I am and will become, it is my cultural identity.

As I was faced with the questions on what my cultural identity was, I started to question myself on what it really meant to me. Do I even have a cultural identity, to begin with? I started to think what I enjoyed most that has evolved me into the person I am today. Everyone seems to have their own cultural identity, some even based their cultural identity off of their personal interests. So I started to think of my own personal interests that would blend into my own cultural identity. Food is something in my life that resembles my culture as well as what I am like as a person. As a child growing up in America but is raised in a Vietnamese household, I was able to get a taste of many different cultures through food. With my culture’s food with a mix of other different cultures, I was able to identify who I really am as a person. The food from my culture really helps me learn more about where I came from and the family traditions that follow it. The foods that I eat show the different cultures that I have tasted in order to identify who I really am today and it helped me get closer to my cultural traditions as well as my family. My family takes food and cooking very seriously, especially for family gatherings because it helps brings us closer together and this side of my family also represents how I view the foods I consume as well.

¨Pereme-what? That is the weirdest and longest last name i've ever heard of! Where do people get last names like that?¨ My answer? Well, my grandfather is from Siberia, but my family just consider ourselves Russian. Actually not long ago my dad had told me about a city in Russia called Peremyshl, my great great grandparents, as I was told, are from there, Peremyshl is in the Kaluga Oblast near Moscow. And because of my ethnic background, I go to my church's youth, our youth really likes to go and hang out at the park or go someplace else and play volleyball.

Effective instructors must understand the issues that impact multicultural education in the United States. The significance of providing an eminence instruction in an unbiased approach to all of their students is essential. The tide of demographic changes in the United States has affected most classrooms in our schools. As a result, some classroom teachers realize they must quickly acquire a comprehensive understanding of ethnic, cultural, and social-class diversity present in today’s schools. Otherwise, these teachers will face difficulty in classrooms comprised of fifty-one percent minority students. (Texas Education Agency, 1993) Nonetheless, traditional teachers with no experience in multicultural

“My culture is my identity and personality. It gives me spiritual, intellectual and emotional distinction from others and I am proud of it.” I’m am african-american teenage girl that, according to the people around me, is considered smart because growing up I was a gifted student, spoiled and stuck up because my family consists of white people. The people that live around me, such as friends, probably share similar cultures with me simply because we live in the same area. However, there are details in everyone’s lives that make them different in some way than others. The facets that make up my culture are my language, the foods I enjoy, the music I listen to, and the principles I abide by.