6 Running head: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE Subject: Name: Institution: I had been raised up as a proud black girl. My mother and Father made sure that would help me reaffirm my sense of identity through photos of my great great- grandmother a full Indian. I could see myself through her. Thus, I was a very proud black girl and would often identify myself as African as opposed to African American. However, it was a while before I accepted who I was. Growing up as a black girl in a predominantly white neighborhood and school was not easy for me. Many of the Caucasian children of my age in the neighborhood approached me with general courtesy such as why is your nose so big? Why do you have big lips? In the beginning as a child I felt that I was like everyone else until others started pointing out my ethnic features. As I got older is started noticing that I was different. Expressed by both my parents that I was beautiful, it was not enough for validation. It did not help that both my dad and step mom had been very light skinned and could almost pass as Puerto Rican or mixed. The type of light skin that could burn and not get dark. They did not have to be the only black child on the volleyball team in middle school, or the only black girl in Girl Scouts. I started to gain a better picture of how they perceived black people in general. I often wished that I could go to a school that had more black people who were sharing my experience. Perhaps if there were more of us then we could confide in each other and show these other girls that there is absolutely nothing wrong with or awkward about being black (Sen, 2013). Even in the black community and family no ones wants to be known as the dark one. Our culture brainwashed us to believe not to even marry another dark individual if yourself was dark. “Please don’t bring home a black ashy baby!”. Hearing that all the time, I am wondering but what about love? As a result of these thoughts, feelings I started feeling like I was an incomplete black girl. I kept all these issues to myself until I was an adult with two kids entering the military. There was a different type of discrimination. Gender discrimination. In a dominate male organization it is very hard to achieve success in the right way. I have never been discriminated as a women and women of color until I entered the Army. TALK ABOUT THE FEMALES BEING IN THE ARMY As an adult I now recognize that there were elements of white supremacy in the undertone of the comments being made by these girls. They thought that white girls were beautiful and naturally perfect. In the same breadth they thought much less of black girls. In effect they associated all the prominent features of black girls with ugliness such as the kinky hair. This clearly points to white supremacy. They believed in the superiority of features associated with white girls without any factual backing whatsoever (McIntosh, 2000). Talk about the course and what affect it has on me. COURSE DES.

1. 6
Running head: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Subject:
Name:
Institution:
I had been raised up as a proud black girl. My mother and
Father made sure that would help me reaffirm my sense of
identity through photos of my great great- grandmother a full
Indian. I could see myself through her. Thus, I was a very
proud black girl and would often identify myself as African as
opposed to African American. However, it was a while before I
accepted who I was. Growing up as a black girl in a
predominantly white neighborhood and school was not easy for
me. Many of the Caucasian children of my age in the
neighborhood approached me with general courtesy such as why
is your nose so big? Why do you have big lips? In the beginning
as a child I felt that I was like everyone else until others started
pointing out my ethnic features. As I got older is started
noticing that I was different. Expressed by both my parents that
I was beautiful, it was not enough for validation. It did not help
that both my dad and step mom had been very light skinned and
could almost pass as Puerto Rican or mixed. The type of light
skin that could burn and not get dark. They did not have to be
the only black child on the volleyball team in middle school, or
the only black girl in Girl Scouts. I started to gain a better
picture of how they perceived black people in general. I often
wished that I could go to a school that had more black people
who were sharing my experience. Perhaps if there were more of
us then we could confide in each other and show these other
girls that there is absolutely nothing wrong with or awkward
about being black (Sen, 2013).

2. Even in the black community and family no ones wants to be
known as the dark one. Our culture brainwashed us to believe
not to even marry another dark individual if yourself was dark.
“Please don’t bring home a black ashy baby!”. Hearing that all
the time, I am wondering but what about love? As a result of
these thoughts, feelings I started feeling like I was an
incomplete black girl. I kept all these issues to myself until I
was an adult with two kids entering the military. There was a
different type of discrimination. Gender discrimination.
In a dominate male organization it is very hard to achieve
success in the right way. I have never been discriminated as a
women and women of color until I entered the Army. TALK
ABOUT THE FEMALES BEING IN THE ARMY
As an adult I now recognize that there were elements of white
supremacy in the undertone of the comments being made by
these girls. They thought that white girls were beautiful and
naturally perfect. In the same breadth they thought much less of
black girls. In effect they associated all the prominent features
of black girls with ugliness such as the kinky hair. This clearly
points to white supremacy. They believed in the superiority of
features associated with white girls without any factual backing
whatsoever (McIntosh, 2000).
Talk about the course and what affect it has on me. COURSE
DESCRIPTION
Since its inception, the social work profession has been
committed to developing health and
human services that promote diversity and alleviate and/or
eliminate social oppression and
injustice. Rooted in the ecological perspective, social workers
are aware of and can identify
large social structures and processes that can negatively impact
the well-being of communities
and individuals. This course is an intensive examination of the
dynamics of various forms of
oppression in U.S. society. The selection of the oppression of

3. racism as a primary focus for the
course is deliberate. Through the analysis of critical race theory
and intersectionality, students
will come to understand the reasoning for this emphasis. The
course begins with an analysis of
racism from structural, social, psychological and applied
perspectives. This approach then
frames the analysis of other forms of oppression, such as
sexism, classism,
homophobia/heterosexism, etc.
The course is designed to stimulate critical thinking, heighten
self-awareness to implicit biases
that we may carry, and develop systematic critical analyses that
lead to identifying ways that
social workers can intervene and oppose oppression
professionally and personally.
The course will explore the costs of oppression to all
individuals (e.g., White supremacy) and
its differential impact on individuals in dominant and
subordinate positions. The importance of
power and the dynamics of domination and subordination in all
forms of oppression will be
explored. Practice issues will be examined in relation to multi-
level interventions (i.e.,
individual, group, organizational and institutional).
Reflecting back on my life in middle school, military lifestyle
and even now this experience leaves a lot to be answered on the
degree to which parents either consciously or subconsciously
imprint racist undertones onto their children. Social media has
defined expand on the affects of social media My parents taught
me to be a proud black girl because most of the stereotypes on
the television on black people were negative. However, she did
not teach me about presumably negative elements of people
from other races. She was only focused on dispelling the
massive stereotypes that were being advanced on black people
and giving me a sense of identity. However, my peers were

4. being taught that features such as the kinky African hair do not
exemplify beauty. They almost managed to convince me that
black girls were not beautiful. I am glad I know better now as
an adult.
References
Frank, H. (Narrator). (2014, June 25). How cute! Is he
yours? [Audio podcast]. In J. Solataroff& H. Frank
(Producers).The longest shortest tim
Sen, R. (2013). The racist mind. Colorlines: News for action.
McIntosh, P. (2000). White privilege: Unpacking the individual
knapsack. In P. Rothenberg (ed.), Race, class, and gender in the
United States (4th ed., pp. 163-168). New York, NY: Worth.
Adams, et al. (2013). Readings for diversity and social
justice (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.