Preview

Autobiographical Interview Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
735 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Autobiographical Interview Research Paper
Running Head: Autobiographical Interview

Autobiographical Interview
Oletha Y. Mask-York
Grand Canyon University
EDU 230, Cultural Diversity in the Classroom
March 25, 2012

Autobiographical Interview I am a decedent of Africa, what part I could not tell you. There are different shades of black in my family and some could surely pass for white or Indian. My ancestors did not willingly come here they were brought here in chains and sold off to the highest bidder. They were slaves of the South; to be exact Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The time-line is perplexing to me because the family history died off with the elders. I do know that once slavery was over lots of my ancestors stayed in the states that they came to know as home. Some moved around but many stayed in the Southern region of the United States. During their journey, they became farmers and store owners that prospered enough to keep their families living comfortable for the times.
Although, I am labeled as African-American I consider my culture to be American. I was born here and I am sure I will be laid to rest here. I look back at my time living in the South and I was a child when I became aware of my culture. I grew up during the seventies of the twentieth century and
…show more content…
As an American you are able to have freedom of speech to express your own opinion, freedom of religion, and equality for all, including different sexes, races, religions and status. Citizenship to me means having a voice to speak up against the injustices and cruelties against the people of my country and to be able to fight for the rights of all Americans. My personal values about others are to treat them the way I want to be treated. I do not judge people by the color of their skin, their religious views, or how they raise their children. We are all God’s children and he made us all different but when we are cut we all bleed the same

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Citizenship is the fiber that unites all Americans. We are a nation connected not by race or religion, but by shared values of freedom, liberty, and equality. What does that exactly mean to the average American citizen? It means that many of us, including myself, have not only expressed several of our rights such as freedom to express ourselves, freedom to worship as we wish, voting in elections, serving on a jury or purchasing or owning a firearm but we aspire to protect those rights.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Myne Owne Ground Review

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    However, Breen and Innes show that over the course of time there were a larger number of non-Creole blacks that started to arrive in the colony. These blacks were arriving as slaves and had distinct customs, languages, markings, etc. This led to a much more racial environment. Some of the older families like Anthony Johnson’s family had members that began to view Africa as a better place rather than deal with all of the European racism they were facing. European’s had also begun by this time to restrict the rights of these free blacks. Many blacks eventually left to colonies with less restriction such as Maryland. Some…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Passed down from generation to generation, oral tradition predominates as one of the most significant sources in discovering the history of the African diaspora. Plagued by illiteracy, the tangible text of the past remains useless for both the freed man and slave, this heightens the use of spoken word to elicit the events of themselves and their ancestors. Through the American Folklore Center, the stories that George Johnson convey, take form. Interviewed in 1940, George Johnson, a former slave from Brierfield, Virginia, recalls the tales of his own enslavement as well as the stories he passed down from his father and grandfather. However, his strictly progressive rendition of his place in North American slavery, not only question the accuracy of his own life events, but the reliability of oral tradition as a whole.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Over the course of this summer semester I have been exposed to many new learning experiences and opportunities. I am most thankful for the supervisor that I had at my agency, and the group of students that I have worked with this summer. This summary will be a rap out/ outline of some of the things that I have participated in this summer. I attended my agency four days out of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and on Fridays. On Wednesdays I participated…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Migration has a different meaning among African Americans, who had to go through a lot of suffering when they came into the country. They initially migrated into the United States as slaves and made to work in plantation and homes in the new world. They were also considered as commodities to be traded in the market. The working conditions of African Americans on the plantations were horrible even though they formed the foundation of the entire cotton industry. The conditions that African Americans had to go through when they migrated into the United States were detailed and explained in the book “In Motion: The African American Migration Experience.” The book gives a list of the first African Americans who arrived into the United States during the 1500s through the Caribbean and Mexico. This account is different from common knowledge, which indicates that they arrived through Jamestown in 1619. They settled in a number of southern states such as South Carolina, Florida, and Texas.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Personal Interview Paper

    • 892 Words
    • 3 Pages

    My day usually starts out very busy, I will see a minimum of three to five clients within a day. Sometimes, the appointments I have with clients are follow-up doctor appointments, to assure that they do not miss their medical appointments. The client may have personal business to attend to like locating resources to pay their bills (lights, gas, or rent), they may need to apply for other resources like food stamps, etc. For those clients that are in need of closer supervision, I will take them to their appointments.…

    • 892 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The definition of a citizen is someone, who was born in the United States of America, and is guaranteed certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities. Citizenship is understood as a right to have rights, such as the right to live and work in the United States and to receive federal assistance. Being a U.S. citizen means I have the right to vote in elections, serve on juries, or hold elected office. Citizenship in the United States means that a person is a legally recognized member of the nation and has equal rights under the law.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper endeavors to evaluate how a person within late adulthood has been impacted by larger systems within their environment. Furthermore, this paper will examine how changes throughout history have influenced the person’s life course trajectory. In an effort to evaluate these factors, an interview of a person in late adulthood was conducted. To gain a clearer understanding of how these factors influence a person within late adulthood, feminist theory and the empowerment prospective were applied to evaluate how these aspects have impacted the interviewee’s life experiences. Thus, gleaning from the interviewee’s own experiences, the interviewee’s developmental strengths and weaknesses were compared and contrasted to normative development patterns that exist within others that belong to the same developmental period.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I interviewed Mrs. Kristen Grimmer, an assistant professor of mass media. The reason I would interview her is that my declared major is mass media, and I take her class now.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery Critical Essay

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Slavery in America has always been a touchy subject, especially when it comes to the truths about the effects of slavery on the slaves themselves. The accounts by slaves are few and far between, and the accounts that are available often tell one side of the story about slavery. This is why I decided to take the Slavery in America course. I hoped to find out more information about the truth of slavery in American history, and I wanted to possible get an insight into what my great, great grandmother had to deal with as a slave in Virginia. With that said, I came into this course with my own personal perceptions of slavery in America, and also about the beginnings of the European slave trade itself. In this critical essay, I will take a look at my pre-existing views and compare them with what I have learned over the first four weeks of class.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.…

    • 3092 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I was browsing through a media’s photo collection when I found the collection from an American Soldier. The media followed the young man from the time he enlisted into the army until the time he was able to return home. This story is analyzed by photographs of the young man, his friends, and his family.…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personal Interview

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (2004, April). "Race and the Death Penalty: The Determinants and…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personal Interview

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This is a personal interview that I conducted with a woman whom is a case manager for a non-profit organization, called Health Right 360. Carla Johnson works exclusively with women on probation that have been mandated to participate in the (AB) 109 Bill. Miss Johnson shared with me what a day consists of working with these women…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    African American Identity

    • 2208 Words
    • 9 Pages

    It was a hot August day as sweat beat down on Thomas Jefferson Brown. He had been working in the field 2 hours before the hot sun had made its presence known. He looked back over the drying field, hoping that this crop would provide for his family better than last years crop had. Thomas watched his oldest son, Nathan, who worked down one row of the field while staring intently at the cotton plants as he picked the cotton. Nathan was a very inquisitive young man who had just yesterday asked his father what it was like being a slave for Mr. Walter Johnson. When his father had told him that in a lot of ways life was so much easier than now, Nathan had given him a look that allowed Thomas to know that his son could not understand. How could he understand? Nathan had not grown up a slave and seen that while it was extremely difficult, there was a feeling of stability to life then. Yes, Thomas Jefferson Brown had endured the beatings and yes he had watched as his Mother and eventually his sisters had been sexually assaulted, but how do you tell a young man such as Nathan that such was the way of life; it was to be expected, along with the comfort of knowing where your next meal was going to come from. Since Tomas had been freed after the great war, He s and his family had endured much more than that; having watched the lynching of two of his brothers and numerous friends. They were the lucky ones though, Thomas thought, while looking up at the fiery ball of heat known as the sun. They did not have to endure other hardships; their suffering was over. Yes it was hard for Nathan to know that life was indeed easier as a slave than a freed man, and maybe, just maybe, things would change during Nathan's lifetime. Thomas Jefferson Brown wiped his brow once more and continued on picking the cotton…Even though the civil war ended in 1865, African Americans still faced an uphill battle to obtain rights that were afforded other Americans. This was in…

    • 2208 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics