IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT essay
Abstract
I’m a black male who was raised by a single mother. My mother not only raised me, my identical twin brother, and our older brother, but she also raised foster children. My mother had a burden to help those in need. Although society considered our family “dysfunctional”, because there was no father figure around; my mother was able to look past our current situation and seek out those in need and provide a service to them.
Due to a job related injury, my mother was unable to work; therefore, she volunteered at the Salvation Army in the soup kitchen where she would serve food to poverty stricken people of our community. She also assisted in a program at the Salvation Army that is similar to Girl Scouts, but it was called the Sunbeams. I started to realize that a majority of the individuals at the soup kitchen were black. Plus, a majority of the kids that attended Sunbeams were black, and came from dysfunctional homes. I did not realize at the time that I would develop a passion to help under privileged juveniles especially black juveniles.
The following paper deals with the vital matter of racism and the way black people adapt in the predominant white society. The paper contains examples from my personal experience and explains in detail how I managed to come to a conclusion that the only way to find oneself in life is to see the hardships of people around you and finally develop one’s own identity with this background. Thus, my personal experience has shown that even though I grew up in a dysfunctional family, I managed to develop my identity to full extent. And at the end, I finally realized what my path in life should be, and that is helping black people, particularly juveniles that need support and assistance.
Key words: racism, identity development, inequality, stereotypes.
Finding oneself in life
As I grew up, I realized that my mother had left her imprint on my life and the life of others. In the aforementioned paragraph I mentioned my mother was a foster parent. According to the state of Texas’ statistics, black children are over represented in the foster care system more than doubling their population (Pyle, 2009). Progress has been done to the system and officials agree to the disproportionality of one race in a program. The problem is complex but there is no quick fix or easy solution. In Texas, 26 percent of children removed from their homes last fiscal year were black, despite making up only 12 percent of the state’s children population, according to Children’s Protective Services. In the region, black children comprised 17 percent of cases, though only making up 6 percent of the population (Pyle, 2009).
The foster children who actually stayed in our home for a long period of time were able to succeed in life. There were three black foster children who spent years with our family. They all entered our homes at different times. There was one male named Deandre and two females named Shatara and Michelle. Deandre graduated college and moved to Minnesota where he became a counselor working with teens and young adults. Shatara did not pursue college, but remains in Freeport where she works a full time job. Michelle entered our family two days after she was born with cocaine in her system. Michelle’s parents are from the Chicago area. Michelle’s parents were given the opportunity for Michelle to return home, but the parents never upheld there part of the deal with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). My mother who gave birth to three boys had the opportunity to have a daughter by adopting Michelle. Michelle graduated from high school with a 4.0 and then attended our local community college, from which she graduated with high honors and was accepted into the honor society. Michelle is currently attending Howard University in Washington DC and is pursuing a degree in political science; her goal is to become a corporate lawyer.
Thus, it is obvious that even being black, a person can find oneself in life. Here, it should be admitted that if you have a kind heart and are passionate about helping those in need, you will be later rewarded by the well-being and success of those you once helped. Judging from the examples given above, one can see that despite racism present in our country, even black people can become successful in life, graduating from educational institutions and occupying high positions in different spheres of life.
My own career choice
As a teenager, I decided I wanted to be like my mother and help people. I told myself that I was going to be a pastor, or a police officer. I soon realized that being a pastor was way harder than I thought. Being a pastor took a lot of discipline. As a pastor, I would have to study the Bible frequently in order to be prepared to deliver a Sunday morning message, Sunday night message, and Wednesday night message. I decided being a police officer was a better career choice for me.
I spent my first five years as a police officer working in a predominately poverty stricken black area of the city. While working in this neighborhood, I helped facilitate programs that would connect the community and the police. I wanted to establish a bond with the adults and adolescents in the community. The police department created a substation in this community where the Community Oriented Policing Unit (COP) worked out of. Myself and the other officers associated with COP developed a bicycle club called Wheels for Winners that met at the substation. COP officers were authorized to use stolen/lost bicycles that went unclaimed in the bike club. The neighborhood kids were shown how to disassemble the bikes including the internal components. The kids were then shown how to re-assemble the bicycle, and once they had completed working on the bike they were allowed to keep the bike. Plus, the police department received a grant to purchase brand new bicycles, which the students could ride when we took them on long rides and camping trips.
Thus, one can see that there are many prospects and opportunities for a black person to find oneself in life, despite all the racism related problems. To proceed with this question, I will give one more example. Thus, the COP unit created another program called Kids and Police Serving (K.A.P.S). The neighborhood juveniles along with COP officers went on different trips to different states like Atlanta Georgia. The juveniles learned anti drugs, anti gang and other messages, and were taught how to perform skits and dramas based off of these anti messages. The students practiced these skits until they were comfortable enough to perform the dramas at different schools and organizations.
These programs allowed me to see that juveniles’ especially young black juveniles who are given guidance and direction have the potential to break stereotypes. Some of the juveniles went on to graduate college, some joined the workforce after high school, and some lived up to the stereotype. Here, it needs to be mentioned that judging from the above-mentioned examples, one can see that even black people living in the world full of stereotypes against them can become rightful citizens of the community.
I felt pride that although Wheels for Winners and K.A.P.S did not save 100% of the participants it did give 100% of the participants the same chance to connect with influential people outside their community who they could use as a mentor .
Access of black people to quality education
I transitioned to a new assignment where I worked as a School Resource Officer. I worked at the high school, the middle school, and the alternative school which are all near each other. The first year at the school I did a lot of arresting students for violating the law. The second year at the school, I became the assistant wrestling coach and being the wrestling coach caused the students to humanize me; although throughout the school day I was dressed in full uniform. The students perception of me changed they did not perceive me as being a threat to them looking to take away their freedoms. I was able to make connections with students and was asked to be a mentor for one of the elementary schools. In the Ebony magazine (2007) an actor by the name Kodjoe who comes from a divorced household stated, “ it is time for black men to step up and be fathers, because 80 % of black children live a portion of their lives without a father, being present in the household” (Samuel, 2007).
Black fathers need to show the world that we are devoted, dedicated, and dependable (Samuel, 2007). I mentored two black males at the elementary school. The curriculum that was provided was from a book called “The Talk my Father never had with me”. The following school year I was asked to mentor five high school students. During the first session, I realized that all five students were black and lived in a single parent home. I mentored one of the students for only two weeks before I arrested him for breaking into the school after hours and vandalizing school property. I would have continued to mentor him but he was expelled from school.
Here, it needs to be stated that African-American students, who make up slightly less than half of those enrolled in Chicago Public Schools, face harsher discipline than their white and Latino classmates but have better access to quality education than minority students in other large, urban districts, according to a study to be released by the U.S. Department of Education (Hood, 2012). Students with Voice of Youth in Chicago Education held a news conference outside the Cook County Juvenile Center, calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to end “extreme” discipline policies that, they say, are forcing African-American and Latino students out of school (Hood, 2012).
IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT part 2 essay
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...