Running Head: CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY

Cultural Biography Vanessa Charles Georgia State University

CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY In society culture is labeled as a persons beliefs, art and ways of life. People are raised with a certain lifestyle that their family, guardians, and peers instill in them as they grow up. A persons culture is something that shapes them into the individuals they are. As a child my parents were a huge influence on what I knew as my culture. Living in several different areas with people from different backgrounds and cultures have taught me many lessons. Moving to different environments and being around different people caused me to try out multiple identities. These instances have shaped me into the person that I am today; I have experienced many events in my life, which have been around many people who have opened my eyes to different cultures. Americanization

I was born to two parents that knew nothing but their own culture. This caused me to want to explore outside of my own. As a child I remember moving around several times a year. When my family would move, people with different ethnic backgrounds would always surround us. Growing up I knew my parents were not into American culture. I was an American citizen. I wanted to stray away from my Caribbean culture. At the age of eight we made a dramatic move from the North to the South. I noticed a dramatic difference from both areas. I never looked at skin color to identify people until my family moved to a suburban area in Georgia. Moving to Georgia made me stray away from my Haitian culture to fit in order with other groups. When I first moved to Conyers, it was a predominately Caucasian area. Caucasians in the south were very different from the ones in the north. I noticed that everyone stayed with his or her own race. I had to learn to adapt to people hanging out with others who looked like them. Although I had trouble accepting my cultural background, I had personal struggles with identity crisis. Identity Crisis When I entered Middle school, I was faced with trying to fit in and make friends. I tried to do what everyone else did and hang out with people who looked like me. To my surprise they had no intensions on becoming my friend. I was not sure on why I was not accepted into a group that looked like myself. I found out later that I wasnt Black enough to be seen with them. Being Black was being apart of hip-hop culture to them. Listening to different genres of music was my hobby. When I lived in New Jersey there were not many Caucasians, just a few that you can pick from crowd. I was very curious as to how my Caucasian peers were as people. I wanted to dress like them and join clubs that they were in due to my curiosity. I hoped that they wouldnt hurt my feelings as my African American peers did. My Caucasian peers were friendly but I felt like I was being a friend with them for all the wrong reasons. Tevens, J. (1997) states that African American female adolescents experiences a relational crisis in both racial and gender identity development. When I entered the seventh grade, I became friends with a group of Caucasian kids who were really nice. Although I was young, I began to have an identity crisis. I wasnt sure who I was or what group I belonged to. I felt confused most of the time; when people would tease me. Kids in my school would say things like, you act White you talk White making me even more confused then I already was. I went to my older sister for advice about what I should do. She simply told me to be myself. When I started my first year of high school I did exactly what she told me to do. Although I had a tough time finding my inner self, I soon became more interested in my own culture.

CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY

Realization When starting high school, I knew I wanted to be more involved in my Haitian culture. When I was younger, I would always hide my culture from others because I was embarrassed. I felt that I was supposed to act like my American friends by dressing, speaking, and eating like they did. I came to the realization that I loved my culture. I felt unique from my peers who were all the same to me. My parents introduced me more in to different thing as I got older. My mother would teach me how to make cultural dishes that I absolutely loved. Religion was a huge part of my culture; I was taught that I must always put god first. The more I learned about my culture, the more I matured. I was always focused on being more like everyone else then trying to learn more about where I came from. I was never interested in my culture as an adolescent, but as I got older I really got into it. Provide it that I am a bi racial individual I have had the opportunity to be involved with two different cultures. Food is a big part of the cultures I identify with. Since the day I could remember, Food was something that always brings my family together. Williams (2012) States that food is a culture in its self

Moving to different areas in the United States had a big impact on the many identities I jumped back and forth from. Fitting in to what I thought was normal was something I experienced through out my adolescent years. The phases I went through were learning experiences that enabled me to learn about my own culture. Trying to be apart of different cultures made me gain more appreciation for my own culture. It takes experiences for one to realize who they really are.

CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY References tevens, J. (1997). African American female adolescent identity development: A three-dimensional perspective. Child Welfare: Journal Of Policy, Practice, And Program, 76(1), 145-172. Williams, J. D., Crockett, D., Harrison, R. L., & Thomas, K. D. (2012). The role of food culture and marketing activity in health disparities. Preventive Medicine: An International Journal Devoted To Practice And Theory, 55(5),