CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Summative Assessment 1: Cultural Autobiography

Leah Fazio
College of DuPage

Cultural Autobiography

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Each and every person in the world has their own unique lens that they
look through in their life. Their experiences from the day theyre born on
changes the way that lens affects how they view everything, whether it be a
place they visit, a movie they watch, or a person they meet. The things that
create a persons lens, or viewpoint, are shaped by their individual
differences. Investigating the individuality Ive gained from my own cultural
identity, development, and past experiences has helped me learn a lot about
my perspective and the lens Ive created myself through my 20 years of
existence.
Personally, I identify as a straight white female in the middle class with
no religious affiliation. I live in a suburb of Chicago called Roselle. I dont
consider myself as someone who falls in the minority category much.
Although many people of the majority tend to have some of the strongest
biases towards or against others, Im confident in my ability to stop my
biases from affecting my education and eventually my career. Growing up, I
never had many developmental factors that made me stand out from my
peers. I was always on track with my physical and social/emotional
development, and the only real difference in school was that I was pulled out
of class for more advanced classes sometimes, which helped me grow
confidence in my intellectual skills. Now, a little more about how my
development created some of these biases and why I feel they wont
negatively affect me:

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First off, I grew up in Roselle, Illinois, population 23,000. Weve always

been a typical white-picket-fence type area: Middle class, primarily white,
and populated by many families. Racially and ethnically, my town doesnt
have much diversity. Its population is about 75% white, 10% Hispanic, and
5% black. From elementary through middle school, I had very few peers of
color, and most of my friends were racially and ethnically very similar to me,
white with European-influenced American cultures. Although that definitely
was an environment that could have created a strong racial bias, many other
factors in my life helped neutralize its potential.
Looking into my ethnicity, I identify primarily as Italian-American, as
Im 50%. My dads family has always been much more influential on my life.
The Fazios are a very stereotypical Chicago Italian-American family. Weve
always been very close-knit and I definitely see how having such a loud and
loving family helped me develop my people skills from a young age.
Another relevant fact about my family is that although both sides
identify as Christian, my immediate family has never been religious. Because
I have religious family members, Ive always had opportunities to attend
their churches and further my understanding of different varieties of
Christianity. This was a really positive influence on me as I was able to see
people who were nearly identical demographically to me be involved in
something that was never a part of my life and see how they benefited from
and enjoyed them. This helped me understand from a young age that just

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because someone isnt exactly like me, it doesnt mean that theyre bad; it
just means that theyre different.
High school opened my eyes to all new sorts of people. I went Lake
Park High School, which had students from 5 different towns in my area.
Although still primarily white, there was much greater diversity compared to
my previous district. I finally saw people who identified very differently than
me: student of color, ethnic students, special needs students, low-income
students, and even students of religions I didnt know much about. Seeing so
many people my age from completely different backgrounds allowed me to
learn a lot more about people, and even about myself. Having the chance to
befriend and get to know different people gave me the opportunity to widen
my perspective of how our society views people who arent like me: white,
straight, perfectly abled and healthy, and middle-class. Additionally, I had
many great teachers, classes, and programs that introduced me to global
perspectives on history, literature, world issues, and much more. Overall, I
feel that my experiences in high school let me learn more about people
different than myself and I feel that Im able to apply that to help reduce any
bias I could have towards or against people who are or arent similar to me.
According to the bias tests we took in class, my results stated that I
have a moderate automatic preference towards white people and a slight
association of male with career and female with family. I think the bias tests
gave me very reasonable results. Theres no denying that I was raised in a

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primarily white area, which definitely affected my automatic responses

towards race. However, I believe that my parents attempts to teach me
about the people of the world and their differences helped counteract the
potential strong bias the uniformity of my town could have created.
Additionally, most of my family, as well as my own household, generally
followed traditional gender roles. I was always frustrated with it growing up,
and I believe that my awareness of the flaws in gender roles through the
years contributed to me having only a slight association versus a strong
one.

I cant deny the fact that Im someone who fits into the majority of our
society in many aspects, but I truly feel that Im a very conscious individual
and that Ive been aware of that for a while now. Im always mentally
reevaluating my judgements of people and thinking about all the different
aspects of their life that led them to be that same person today. I try to keep
my bias and stereotyping in check as often as I can, because to use them to
make a judgement isnt fair at all. I see the effect that those things can
cause in someones social and professional lives and its not usually a great
one. If theres one thing Ive learned in the past 20 years about interacting
with other people, its to take on differences as a learning experience, not

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something to get past. That mentality has allowed me to feel confident in my

ability to treat people equally and fairly, always.