The author grew up in poverty in rural Idaho, raised by an uneducated, abusive father who was married eight times. School provided an escape from the author's difficult home life, dominated by violence and alcoholism. As a young child, the author would search dumpsters for food after helping their father sweep parking lots at night. Though experiencing prejudice from peers for being poor, the author felt enraged by films about racism in the 1960s. Throughout hardship, the author's faith in God gave strength and perspective. After leaving home, the author was surprised to learn about white supremacy but rejected it due to personal experiences with an abusive white father. The author is now in their final semester of college, having learned how to

1. Pretest Cultural
Autobiography
Dr. Ette
Alan Neighbobors
Week 4

2. I was raised in poverty with little interaction with race or culture. My days
were typically spent in working on the land harvesting hay, corn, and
sugarbeets. We did this work in trade for a place to live. My dad was not an
educated man having only finished the 4th grade. He was raised in
Arkansas and lived in the back woods where community was about
survival. It was what he knew and what he then had us all live.
My dad was prone to violence and spent considerable time enebrieated as
a means to avoid his depression. I was the sixth of fourteen kids and do
not recall days that were not without significant pain, whether physical or
mental in origin.
My dad spent his nights sweeping parking lots for a living and I often went
with him. my job was to sweep the sidewalks around the store fronts and
to clean the curb area. After completing the sweeping task, it was my job
to hop into the dumpsters and search for any food that was edible. I
started this when I was six and continued well into my teens. I recall be
yelled at multiple times to get out of the dumpster but never recall anyone
offering or asking if I needed help.
My father could not sustain any relationship long term so we constantly
had a new step mom. He was married 8 times and was abusive in every
relationship. There were many times that all of us kids attemtped to help
create some stability in his relationships but inevitabally, they would
leave. I learned at a very young age that I was on my own.
I did attend public school in Boise where race was not really discussed or
perhaps I was to lost in my own world to recognize or even think about it.
Going home was a nightmare so any time away was a gift from heaven.
Throughout my grade school and junior high I experiened prejudice from
my peers because poverty has a way of making you stand out and become
fodder for ignorance's play. Yet in spite of this, I preferred school because
home was dark without much reprieve. I do recall watching films in school
about the sixties, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and feeling enraged
that people would have do endure such stupidity. Praise God for their
strength and unwavering courage.
During my years with my Father, I had a unwavering connection with God.
He seemed to always be there in spite of the darkness and pain.
Regardless of the circumstance, He seemed to hold me above the meaning
of my dire situation. I tended to always possess a positive and happy
attidtude. It is because of God's undying love for me that I was able to not
only survive the darkness of my world but also, He allowed me to not be

3. defined by it. I can't recall ever feeling superior to anyone as that would be
so contrary to the love He bestowed on me. I believe my personal
relationship with God gave me clarity about "others" regardless of skin
tone or culture. I remember always wanting to travel and understand the
world in which I lived. There seemed to be so many nations that I knew
nothing about. It made me feel small then and still does today.
My education about racism seemed to be such an accurate portrayal of my
life accept for the fact that I am white. I have fought against the bias of
others since I can remember. Whether in the school system, grocery
stores, public parks or any where that my family and I went, we were
always treated as less than "right". Much of my adult life has been spent
fighting against the pain of my past. I can only imagine how difficult it is
for this nation to heal from the deliberate infliction of discrimination and
prejudice.
Once I became an adult, and when I moved away from my father's
dominance, I began my divergence from the childhood. It became clear
that white supremecy was dominant in society. I was dumbfounded by the
idea and laughed at how ignorant it seemed to me. Given my personal
experience with my father, who was white, how could any white man
every be superior to anyone. Yet as always happens with education, I came
to understand the gravity of racism and prejudice in our society. It became
clear that the abuse I endured possessed similarities but was certainly not
to the extent our nation has endured. It is difficult to imagine people
abusing one another but then it only requires a simple childhood
reflection to feels the sting and pain abuse can cause which can, in a small
way, understand.
I am in my final semester here at NNU and have enjoyed learning about
how to address ignorance and how to adovocate for change without
contributing to the pain and narrowmindedness of hatred.