Accepting My Culture

 Growing up in a black culture comes with struggles, often fearing for your life and never knowing who is watching and how they feel about African Americans. Living as a black person is like walking on eggshells or hot coal. Yet my skin, hair, and body are the wave of black culture; everyone in the world wants the style and class of black culture. According to Maya Angelo, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” As a culture, it is important to make black people feel accepted. Black women struggle with elements of identity, stereotypes, and forgiveness within the African American culture.

Identity plays an essential part in black women and black culture. In my culture, we must keep ourselves apart. If we do not look a certain way or carry ourselves a certain way, we are automatically assumed to be “ghetto.” In the article, A Letter to My Niece, the author stated, “Even if you sound like a white girl over the phone, you might not get the job in the in-person interview.” This shows that if we do not look or talk a certain way, we are not acceptable to society.

Being part of the African American women's and black cultures, I think stereotypes were made solely for us. I say this because when you think of a black person, the first thing that comes to mind is loud or unemployed. When it comes to men, we think of jail or deadbeat. People outside my culture use these stereotypes to define us, thinking they know us. Author Felton wrote, “When he was shot, he wasn’t blasting his music loudly or talking back to anyone.” This shows that even the average black man has been deemed a danger to society. As author Felton said, “it doesn’t matter what labels the world gives you, as long as you do the defining.” 

When it comes to forgiveness in the black culture, we sometimes struggle to do so. We have a saying, “I can forgive, but I'll never forget.” For me, this means there will always be some grudge toward one another. We tend to show hard love, not knowing how it affects the other person. In the article, the author stated, “try to forgive those of us in the family who help press those definitions onto you.” Although we struggle with forgiveness, we will always identify the problem and seek understanding for our mistakes.

Although we struggle with the elements of identity, stereotypes, and forgiveness within the African American culture, we will always be that unique culture with the wave everyone wants to ride. Every culture has its flaws, but my culture comes together to become better as a community. Despite the stereotypes the world uses to define us, we continue to flourish, setting examples for surrounding cultures. The color of our skin, the texture of our hair, our walk, and our talk will always intimidate the outside world. If it were left up to me to decide my culture, I would stay where I am.

Works Cited
Felton, Ariel. “A Letter to My Niece.” Progressive, 11 Feb. 2019,

           progressive.org/magazine/a-letter-to-my-niece-Felton. 

Reflection

Writing this essay was a bit of a struggle for me. I say this because when it comes to writing I struggle with coming up with an introduction. Writing this essay taught me that if you write your thesis first, everything else will fall in line. Once I got my introduction the rest of the essay came together. Now for my next essay I know to start with my thesis, find my three reasons, and work my way up 

Also, I would like to give thanks to my teacher and her patience. Without her, my introduction wasn't possible. I learned that I should write as I go and do the corrections later. My next essay should come as a breeze between the new writing tactics I learned and having a teacher that wants everyone to succeed. Instead of procrastinating and being scared to start, I can also ask for help.