The most significant events that influenced changed in my ethnic identity took on a see saw effect early in my childhood. Early in my childhood, I related closely with my African American heritage, because that was the only culture to which I was exposed. Growing up in an area that was solely public housing, it consisted primarily of African American families. Other races resided in the same area, but the neighborhood was still segregated where most people really only dealt with people of the same background.
It was not until our family moved into a house in a nicer neighborhood where there were only two other families in a twenty-five block radius that were African American. I then began to relate to Caucasians. I began to adapt to the culture of the other children around me. I made every attempt to be just like all the children around me. One day, I was leaving school and one of the students referred to our teacher using a very derogatory name, the teacher was African American. The student then turned to me and said, “No offence, ”. And I immediately took offense and ran to the teacher and told her what was said. In so many words, she let me know that no matter how much you adapt yourself to another culture, you should always respect your own culture and the differences of others. She apparently noticed I had begun to distance myself from my own culture.
Those words stuck with me through out my adolescent years because in school, I was always surrounded by other cultures other than those of my own ethnic background. When I began high school, I was introduced to a self inflicted segregation that I never knew existed. The high school only consisted of approximately one-hundred and fifty African American students. This was only 10% of the population of the school. The African American students stayed in one area of the school unless they were in class and the other students had their respective areas. It was even noticed during in school...