Running head: ETHNIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Ethnic Autobiography
Karin Troy
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke

ETHNIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I am an African American with a Hispanic descent from my father. I am not very fervent
about celebrating my heritage. However, I do try my best to understand the culture of both sides
of my racial identity. According to my mother, my father is a Puerto-Rican American. I have not
seen him since my second birthday party, therefore, I have no memory of what he looks like,
how he speaks, or the type of relationship we had. Due to my fathers absence, I have not met my
grandparents on my fathers side. On the other hand, my mother is African American as well as
my grandfather. But my grandmother is Cherokee Indian and African American. My mother and
grandfather are not very enthusiastic about celebrating their heritage and roots. However, my
grandmother is very true to her African American descent, but not so much to her Cherokee
heritage. My grandmother proudly displays several African American pictures and statues
throughout her home. My husband and I reside in Pembroke, where there is an obvious majority
of Native Americans and Caucasians. On the other hand, my grandmother and mother live
together in a rural neighborhood in Red Springs. Majority of the neighborhood consist of African
Americans and very few Mexicans and Native Americans. Then again, my grandfather lives in a
community in Fayetteville that consists of a huge group of army families. With that being said,
the neighborhood resides a mixture of all races and ethnic groups.
Truthfully, the past has altered the way many races and ethnic groups feel about dating
other races. My mother is far from racist, but for some reason she would be more accepting for
me to date an African American man before a Native American man. As stated earlier, my
mother is not very loyal in celebrating her heritage, yet she holds no bias towards any race or
ethnic group, considering the fact that my father is Hispanic. With that being said, my family is
very well-rounded when it comes to others races because my uncle and aunt both have multiracial children.

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During my early life experiences with other races, my first friend was Mexican and
Native American. Due to the fact that most Mexicans speak Spanish at home, when I would call
to speak with my friend there was always an unwelcoming response. Later, as our conversation
would progress I would hear her parents speaking Spanish in a very defensive way towards her,
then shortly after she would have to call me later, but she never did. Over time, I have come to
realize that all races seem to take pride in their heritage as a whole. But I guess that goes back to
the effect segregation and discrimination has laid upon society today. On the other hand, I did
have a positive friendship with a girl who was Caucasian and Native American. Kelly was my
best friend in middle school, she looked more Native American than Caucasian, but she acted
more Black than White. Her mom or dad was not around much but both she and her sister had a
particular taste in older black dudes, so I concluded that her family was not very typical about
race. But then again, her sisters were always fighting black girls. Back then, everyone would call
Kelly a whore because she would get around easily and had no problem getting who she wanted.
I have come to the conclusion that at such a young age, race and ethnicity are not important
factors that are taken into consideration. However, Schaefer (2011) states that in addition to
personality factors normative approach stresses the view that prejudice is influenced by societal
norms and situations that encourage the tolerance of minorities (p.39). Children grow up without
seeing the difference in race until parents expose the child to think otherwise by using a
normative approach.
As a child, my mom was not big on entertainment; instead I would visit a select few of
my friends at their homes. But I never stayed with neither of my friends who were another race,
simply because I knew not to ask because my mom would want to speak with the parents and
that was sort of a dead end. However, my first sleepover was with my friend who was African

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American and Native American. But the only reason my mom approved the sleepover was
because she found out that my friend was also my cousin. With that being said, my mom always
found an excuse for why I could not invite my friends over simply because my room or the
kitchen was not clean enough for anyone to come over. Yet, my mother is the type who likes to
stereotype other races like saying You not going to stay with them Mexicans to bring those
roaches here. By all means my mom is far from prejudice but she has her bias against certain
races, which is weird because she had a child with a Hispanic man.
In reference to the attitudes and behaviors of Caucasians, African Americans always
seem to raise their standards when around this race. When I speak to White individuals I speak in
a professional manner because the first words spoken are subject to judgment. Therefore, I act if
they are superior to me because that is how I was taught. I was raised in a rural area where the
white people were the key to success, this was just common courtesy. In other words, in order to
rise above my social class I had to compete with my white classmates and work even harder
because they had better education and more money, which always led to more opportunities. For
that reason, I became accustomed to institutional discrimination. In terms of behavior, Hispanics
bother me the most because their children are so wild. When I go shopping, Hispanics always
allow their children to roam freely and play with toys without putting them back and act as if
they are at the playground. It aggravates me to see children act in such a way in public and the
parents act as if it is normal. Most times, the parent will just stand right by the child and watch
them destroy the toy aisle, then just walk off as if everything was untouched. I find it so difficult
to look past this issue because it resembles the disrespect and carelessness of Hispanics.
Growing up in a rural neighborhood that consists mainly of African Americans, some
races were judged harshly. For instance, maybe two Hispanic families live in my neighborhood

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and every weekend they blast music as if they are a performing band of some sort. So my
neighborhood purposely referred to them as wetbacks, border hoppers, immigrants and old
Mexicans. Some even thought that these families worshipped the devils, but these were all just
rumors. By the way, majority of my neighborhood are thugs so they speak harshly without
considering the feelings of these individuals. But the Mexicans disregarded all the discrimination
in the neighborhood and focused on their family.
Most of the organizations I am associated with mainly consist of African Americans. For
example, my church is majority black but we welcome all races and ethnic groups because we do
not discriminate. The main reason being that every race worships differently and we listen to
different genres of gospel music as well. However, my workplace is very diverse and values the
culture of all ethnic groups and races. I work at Dennys Diner, which used to be a very
segregated restaurant that did not serve blacks. Today, this company is managed by Puerto
Ricans and the employees are very diverse, and we serve all races and ethnic groups.
Interestingly, one study suggest that having a nonwhite supervisor minimized perceptions of
discrimination for all employees, regardless of race or ethnicity (Hirsh, 2010, p. 290).Therefore,
the race or ethnicity of the individuals with management titles makes a difference in the
effectiveness of discrimination in the workplace. In other words, my job allows me to come in
contact with various races and understand the way other races act towards my race because my
manager is not white.
As expected, almost all my friends are African American except for one, who happens to
be Native American and related to my husband. Throughout high school, I never wanted to be
friends with Native Americas because they were all too wild, they smoke marijuana frequently,
they cared less about school, and would curse the teachers out and care less about the

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consequences. On the other hand, I always wished for a white friend, I have never had a white
friend simply because I always felt that they would think they were better than me. I am not a
spoiled rich girl, I do not have a fancy car, my house is not luxurious, my family did not graduate
from the best schools in the United States and I did not wait until marriage to have sex or
conceive children. Even though I always knew that having a white friend would be great because
I would finally have someone with the same mindset as myself, I felt as if I did not meet the
criteria to be friends with a white individual because I am afraid of what their parents would
think of me. I am more concerned about the impression I make on the parents more than the
individual. A black scholar once said, In the United States, people are still judged by the color
of their skin, not the content of their character (Staples, 2011, p. 40). With that being said, I
have been shaped to expect discrimination from Whites for the rest of my life because I am
aware that racial inequality still exists because of the influence of white privilege.

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References
Hirsh, E., & Lyons, C. J. (2010). Perceiving Discrimination on the Job: Legal Consciousness,
Workplace Context, and the Construction of Race Discrimination. Law & Society
Review, 44(2), 269-298.
Schaefer, R.T. (2011). Racial and ethnic groups. In C. Campanella & D. Musslewhite (Eds.),
Prejudice (pp. 33-56). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Staples, R. (2011). White power, black crime, and racial politics. Black Scholar, 41(4), 31-41.