Personal Narrative: How Race And Class Played A Role In My Identity

Growing up in Colorado, there were never many other Indian students. In my elementary school; there may have been a total of 5 Indian children in my grade level. Because of this lack of other Indian peers growing up, I never really embraced the fact that I was Indian. I never went to any Indian cultural events that my parents attended, and I tried to ignore the fact that I was Indian.

The article “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is an informative article about the author growing up on an Indian reservation, attending reservation school and where he is today. The author's underlying message in the article is cultural differences when not accepted can cause issues not only socially but also in education. The author does a great job in persuading his readers of the issues on education in reservation schools and possibly how to fix these issues.

Culture affects people’s perspectives of the world and others through their upbringing and how, when, and where they were raised. In the essay, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” Robert Lake writes about how his Indian child’s traditional way of learning is different from those in western education systems and that he's not a “slow” learner but learns in a different way from his peers. In the personal essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” Bharati Mukherjee describes her differing views of living in America with her sister, despite both being raised in India. In the poem, “My Mother Pieced Quilts,” by Teresa Palomo Acosta, Teresa how this quilt that her mother made for her involves all these pieces of her past that are stitched together. In the

Within the Spoken India tribe education was not a main force or really encourage within the community. For example, when Alexie told his community that he wanted to go to school; the community just laughed at him. Through hard work and dedicated he was able to achieve his goals regardless how small or big it. Alexie was passionate in poetry, short-stories and screenplays and due to his hard work and dedication he was able to overcome many challenges and prove his community

Growing up they were looked at as these young Mexican American teenagers that had a baby too young. In everybody eyes that was typical. As their children people expected us to follow our parent’s footsteps. They thought we wouldn’t get an education, and become young parent’s. Author Sherman Alexie explains a similar life experience. Sherman Alexie stated “As Indian Children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non- Indians” (Sherman Alexie pg36). Sherman Alexie explains how Indians were portrayed as uneducated people. They were not supposed to mount out too much. The Indians are only supposed to know about Indian things. Since their ancestors before them didn’t have an education, and failed to receive one. Their children will follow in their footsteps too. This connected to my life experience because people assumed that my sisters and I would end up like my parents uneducated with kids. In Sherman Alexie experience people assumed that Indians were not smart enough to get an education. Sherman Alexie also stated “I loved those books, but I also knew

There are many things that people often take for granted like the freedom to learn and not to be judged for acting upon that freedom. Sherman Alexie wrote the essay “Superman and Me” to help Indian children realize that they can learn and not be defined by what people tell them. In the essay “Superman and Me” Alexie talks about how when he was a child he was looked down upon because he wanted to learn. To support his belief that education is an important thing in life and can often save lives he uses his experiences in life to help Native American children realize the same things. I am one of the lucky ones. Like Alexie, I had the ability to learn and parents who supported my education. Therefore, I agree with Alexie that Indian children need role models and heroes and need to learn to value education in order to break down the stereotypes that are put on them by people.

The consolidated nature of Indian families gives extended family members the power to have great influence over their younger relatives. If this aspect of Indian family life holds true, then it is natural for parents to have a colossal amount of influence over their children. In the Indian culture, parents are a symbol of unquestionable authority and the unmovable force of their household. We can see that Indian children are educated

So what does it mean to be Indian in the late nineteenth and early twentieth? They had a separation of categories mainly the name of anomalies, as for the book the figure illustrates “Red Cloud Woman” this was a figure for the american culture and society (Deloria, 5). As for expectations, expectations are almost invariably raced, classed, and gendered. They can be colored by religious practice and by regional location touched by sexuality, transformed by national difference and global exchange (Deloria, 7). The role of Indians was very complicated, expectations, ideology, discourse and power shaped Indians in American

Correctional Theory In the United States, there are 1.6 million offenders in state prisoned and federal prisoner. Once the offender is out of prisoner then they are place in the courts and under a probation for the rest of their sentence unless they break the law again. Than the offender will be place back in the system a state or federal prisoner depend on what type of crime was committee. In the early 1970s the state and federal prisoner count of inmates was below 200,000.

Without the knowledge of what culture is and does, we as a society would be lost. "An Indian Father's Plea," an essay by Robert Lake, explains the ways in which a difference in culture can affect someone's

I kept thinking, ‘I am the only Indian in this country right now. I'm the only Indian within a five-thousand mile circle’”(Alexie, 7). The speaker in this writing believed that he was the only Indian anywhere nearby. We can see in this writing how the lack of belonging can lead to feelings of

Indians many times have been associated with funny accents, believers of caste system, culture that is full of colors and very smart people in math and technology. Indians make up less than 1% of the population of America and yet they are the CEO’s of “PepsiCo and MasterCard” and are presidents and deans of America’s most prestigious colleges and hold high positions in journalism such as Sanjay Gupta and neurosurgeon and media reporter for CNN here in Atlanta and Fareed Zakaria a journalist and author. “They are also dominating fields such as technology, scientific research and medicine; and thriving in industries such as hospitality, transportation and real estate. They have also achieved extraordinary success in government: the governors of two of America’s most conservative states are of Indian origin, as are White House senior

It recognizes that American Indians have unique, education and culturally related academic needs and distinct language and culture needs;

Indian-Americans ranging from ages 16-24 that are first generation Americans undergo the stages of minority identity development. They are commonly placed in environments which force them to question their own identity. As they communicate with peers, they question themselves and their personal beliefs and customs. Occasionally, they view the majority culture as better than their own and may develop negative feelings of their Indian household upbringing. One may feel the need to internalize the values of the dominant culture of the community and change to fit the status quo. This is especially difficult for Indian-Americans because so many things that they are taught within the home are not normal for the majority culture therefore presenting a major division and causing an uproar in the home. Parents tend to view “normal” majority culture attributes as

‘America is the land of immigrants.’- This was the first thing I ever heard about the supreme global power of the 21st century, and my definition of immigration has been expanding since then. Being an immigrant myself, I had the opportunity to gain several first hand experiences in the processes of migration and assimilation in a host society. Although the benefit of being a second generation migrant eased my transition than that of many first generation migrants, the culture I brought with me from India, my home country, did not fail to shape my life in the US. Culture implants moral values in one’s personality directing the cognitive pathways towards decision making, which ultimately influence life goals and attainment of those goals too. This influence of culture is conspicuous in the differences observed in the realizations of the ‘American dream’ among different ethnic groups, representing different cultural backgrounds. In this ethnography, I take a deeper look at the migration perspectives of a first generation Indian migrant to the US named Krishna, who was able to achieve the American dream. Belonging to one of the most successful immigrant groups in the US, i.e. the Indians, Krishna possesses a relatively positive stance towards his migration experience compared to the most immigrant stories of ‘suffering’ that come to the limelight in the society.