Ben S HDFS 280 Blog

The difference between racial-ethnic socialization between families really stemmed from peoples parents and how much they put forth when it came to participating in part of their own culture. Mainly, the differences came when many people reported that either their families talked to them about their culture and embraced it, or that they didn't really care for their culture and didn't feel the need to talk about or share it with their kids. I would say that in the case of receiving racial-ethnic socialization from my parents, I was raised more white than Mexican and I was taught more from my environment than my mom. Although she didn't feel the need to assert her culture in the household she held some key values from her culture and would always answer any questions I had about my culture. If I could go back and ask my parents to do it differently, I would ask that my mom helps me embrace her Mexican culture so that I can understand some of her thought processes when it co...

In my personal experience I haven't been greatly affected by white privilege. Although I have been afforded many privileges from my parents success I don't tie their success to their races, but to their work ethic. My dad (German) grew up the eldest of 7 brothers so money was very scarce and had to work multiple jobs and shoulder college debt to get to where he is. My mother (Mexican) struggled attending college as well, but was offered a scholarship that worked linearly with her grades where she owed less if she got higher grades. Looking at the school aspect of things both seem to be afforded the same privileges as the other. However, my mother experienced many events in her daily social life that my dad fortunately never had to experience when working. Early in her career she was constantly mistaken as a waitress, maid, janitor, etc. While on the job this was extremely embarrassing and demoralizing after working hard to put herself in the position she was at the hospital. In...

     This week I want to talk about some difficulties that mixed people like myself have. My background is Mexican and American (specifically German) and growing up mixed almost feels as if picking sides in a sense. Referring specifically to the iceberg analogy in our textbook, (Sensoy and DiAngelo pp.37) you can see that there are parts in the "underside" of the iceberg that are "unspoken" and "unconscious" which acts as muscle memory for some. However, I have run across instances where these rules contradict each other across cultures. An instance of this occurring was when I went to meet my mom's side of the family in Nashville Tennessee and went out for dinner. Afterwards my mom had to explain to me that she was taught growing up that talking across the table was considered rude and said that I needed to be more conscious of my elders around me. While growing up we rarely met with my mom's side of the family (Mexican) and spent more time with m...