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Welcome to Naima's Identity Padlet! In my Social Studies class, our first unit of study is on "Identity" and we have been creating our own Identity Portfolios. Over the past 5 weeks, we have explored different parts of who we are. In this Padlet, you will find my responses to 3 questions: Who am I? Who or what do I represent? and Who will I become?

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Question 1: Who am I?                                                                               I am Naima Joseph, named after an African lullaby my parents used to play for my brother. I have grown up in different places, moved 4 times, but all to the same general area; Lake city Seattle, Rainier Vista in Seattle, Apartments in Columbia City, and now a house in Columbia City. I go to Washington Middle School and live with my parents, and a brother. Growing up in Seattle, Washington, I’ve had pretty diverse friends, but the groups I have had them from are very different. For example in school I am in a program which exists of mostly white students and we are mainly given the chances to only interact with people in that program. But in ways such as basketball teams, after school programs, and my neighborhood I have had all types of friends. Growing up as a multiracial kid with a multiracial older brother and mixed parents (one of which is a professor in the communications department which teaches about race, gender, and all the things in that department.) Since my mom teaches this work, I have been fed the ideas and knowledge of communications since I was little, and that’s why I have had a pretty strong identity of being mixed race.  I have also known what's acceptable to say, and what's acceptable for other people say, and this has made me stronger and more politically and racially correct. As I have grown older my mom has added new ‘nutrients’ of communications to my diet. Especially with the addition of social media to my life, its easy to hear and learn new things. I have even taught my mom new things, especially about gender identity and sexuality, from learning on social media, or from my queer friends. I am overall grateful for this knowledge being fed to me and will continue to develop my understanding of feminism from it. I have had to navigate ways in which my racial identity has been ignored, or people have been ignorant and needy of education. I have had multiple friends make racist jokes, once I had a towel on my head after swimming with a group of people and one of them said “Naima, you’re embracing your culture!” I didn’t know what to say so I just awkwardly laughed. 

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Question 1: Who am I?                                                                               I am Naima Joseph, named after an African lullaby my parents used to play for my brother. I have grown up in different places, moved 4 times, but all to the same general area; Lake city Seattle, Rainier Vista in Seattle, Apartments in Columbia City, and now a house in Columbia City. I go to Washington Middle School and live with my parents, and a brother. Growing up in Seattle, Washington, I’ve had pretty diverse friends, but the groups I have had them from are very different. For example in school I am in a program which exists of mostly white students and we are mainly given the chances to only interact with people in that program. But in ways such as basketball teams, after school programs, and my neighborhood I have had all types of friends. Growing up as a multiracial kid with a multiracial older brother and mixed parents (one of which is a professor in the communications department which teaches about race, gender, and all the things in that department.) Since my mom teaches this work, I have been fed the ideas and knowledge of communications since I was little, and that’s why I have had a pretty strong identity of being mixed race.  I have also known what's acceptable to say, and what's acceptable for other people say, and this has made me stronger and more politically and racially correct. As I have grown older my mom has added new ‘nutrients’ of communications to my diet. Especially with the addition of social media to my life, its easy to hear and learn new things. I have even taught my mom new things, especially about gender identity and sexuality, from learning on social media, or from my queer friends. I am overall grateful for this knowledge being fed to me and will continue to develop my understanding of feminism from it. I have had to navigate ways in which my racial identity has been ignored, or people have been ignorant and needy of education. I have had multiple friends make racist jokes, once I had a towel on my head after swimming with a group of people and one of them said “Naima, you’re embracing your culture!” I didn’t know what to say so I just awkwardly laughed. 

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Question 2: Who or what do I represent? How do I represent myself, culture, family, and community?                                               I represent mixed race kids. I do this because I represent how we are confused in ways with our identity and trying to be boxed into one group, like how I took a pre-test last year with boxes, and none that said mixed/multi-racial and made my own box. I represent us in how I identify as all parts of my race, black, white, and indian. I show us in how I don’t ignore how we are different than everyone else and have unique experiences, or how we can pass for different things, I have passed for mixed, samoan, white and latina, and I know my dad has passed for latino, the list goes on and on and I’m sure all mixed people have passed for other things than they are. I also represent basketball players when I speak up about how I have pain or how I never have time after school like other kids since I train. Last but not least, I think I represent girls who can tell what’s going on with politics and the world is repressive, even if they can’t speak up about it or don’t feel courageous, when I fight for our rights, may it be a classroom debate about whether sexism exists, or about my body my choice. I feel like I visually represent myself as strong, loud, and here. When I say here, I mean I am here and I am a person, even though women are typically shown as weak, quiet or without an opinion, I have an opinion and my opinion is everyone deserves rights and an opportunity to live and support their own person. I visually represent how I am mixed by communicating by talking about the multiple parts of my cultures, like how I talk about when I go to my nana’s house in California, we may go to Indian restaurants or how we always have what I call ‘Indian trail mix’ or how she wears her saris and wants me to show our indian culture by wearing them. I talk about how it was hard for my grandpa to have a interracial relationship in the 1950’s and how it tore them apart, because it is part of my culture and I. I talk about how my mom teaches race and how I have been taught about my identity, so I don’t appreciate when you tell me who I am. I might get upset or raise my voice about it, to teach you how my identity is mine and I can decide it, or how we need a culture of being respectful and letting people speak for themselves. Its not just a rant, it’s me.    

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Question 2: Who or what do I represent? How do I represent myself, culture, family, and community?                                               I represent mixed race kids. I do this because I represent how we are confused in ways with our identity and trying to be boxed into one group, like how I took a pre-test last year with boxes, and none that said mixed/multi-racial and made my own box. I represent us in how I identify as all parts of my race, black, white, and indian. I show us in how I don’t ignore how we are different than everyone else and have unique experiences, or how we can pass for different things, I have passed for mixed, samoan, white and latina, and I know my dad has passed for latino, the list goes on and on and I’m sure all mixed people have passed for other things than they are. I also represent basketball players when I speak up about how I have pain or how I never have time after school like other kids since I train. Last but not least, I think I represent girls who can tell what’s going on with politics and the world is repressive, even if they can’t speak up about it or don’t feel courageous, when I fight for our rights, may it be a classroom debate about whether sexism exists, or about my body my choice. I feel like I visually represent myself as strong, loud, and here. When I say here, I mean I am here and I am a person, even though women are typically shown as weak, quiet or without an opinion, I have an opinion and my opinion is everyone deserves rights and an opportunity to live and support their own person. I visually represent how I am mixed by communicating by talking about the multiple parts of my cultures, like how I talk about when I go to my nana’s house in California, we may go to Indian restaurants or how we always have what I call ‘Indian trail mix’ or how she wears her saris and wants me to show our indian culture by wearing them. I talk about how it was hard for my grandpa to have a interracial relationship in the 1950’s and how it tore them apart, because it is part of my culture and I. I talk about how my mom teaches race and how I have been taught about my identity, so I don’t appreciate when you tell me who I am. I might get upset or raise my voice about it, to teach you how my identity is mine and I can decide it, or how we need a culture of being respectful and letting people speak for themselves. Its not just a rant, it’s me.    

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Question 2: Who or what do I represent? How do I represent my culture, family, and identity?

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Question 2: Who or what do I represent? How do I represent my culture, family, and identity?

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Question 3: Who will I become? (10+ years from now) I believe I will become a woman in med school, training to be a surgeon who still speaks out about social justice and what I believe is right. I think I will point out ignorance and speak to it/educate others and surround myself with people who inspire myself to be better and make me laugh. I will play basketball with friends and when I visit family, still fit and strong relationships with my teammates. My hobbies may include making youtube videos, playing basketball (maybe with a league), playing drums and hanging out with friends. If I need space from others or to work on myself/have a break I will take that for as long as I need. I see myself dating people, and also possibly having a long-term relationship from college, but definitely not married or had kids, not even having a pet since those are expensive and college students are not typically financially stable. I see myself living in a on campus dorm, hopefully in either California or Washington, so I can be near my family dependent on where my brother and parents are. I see myself having a job, maybe at a café since I would need to make money on my own, but just part time since school would be most important, since it always has been. I think my identity has changed racially, in ways like its been more strong/confirmed since I will know myself better and how I react in situations where my being mixed has been a topic of discussion or I will be dealing with it better since I will have been mixed for longer. I think my a bigger part of my identity would be about being a student or a doctor since that would take up a lot more of my time, and especially since I wouldn’t be playing basketball as much anymore. I also would hope my identity would stay the same as being able bodied, since it would be much more difficult to be disabled especially in finding work or just doing all things that we take for granted. The last part of this is I am adventurous and I want that to stay the same because being outgoing with people as well as activities has helped me make friends, and its more fun to do stuff then just be scared. When I have gone to sleepaway camps Its been easy for me to make new friends because I am a generally outgoing person, so I would like to stay the same, and maybe even grow a little more in it. 

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Question 3: Who will I become? (10+ years from now) I believe I will become a woman in med school, training to be a surgeon who still speaks out about social justice and what I believe is right. I think I will point out ignorance and speak to it/educate others and surround myself with people who inspire myself to be better and make me laugh. I will play basketball with friends and when I visit family, still fit and strong relationships with my teammates. My hobbies may include making youtube videos, playing basketball (maybe with a league), playing drums and hanging out with friends. If I need space from others or to work on myself/have a break I will take that for as long as I need. I see myself dating people, and also possibly having a long-term relationship from college, but definitely not married or had kids, not even having a pet since those are expensive and college students are not typically financially stable. I see myself living in a on campus dorm, hopefully in either California or Washington, so I can be near my family dependent on where my brother and parents are. I see myself having a job, maybe at a café since I would need to make money on my own, but just part time since school would be most important, since it always has been. I think my identity has changed racially, in ways like its been more strong/confirmed since I will know myself better and how I react in situations where my being mixed has been a topic of discussion or I will be dealing with it better since I will have been mixed for longer. I think my a bigger part of my identity would be about being a student or a doctor since that would take up a lot more of my time, and especially since I wouldn’t be playing basketball as much anymore. I also would hope my identity would stay the same as being able bodied, since it would be much more difficult to be disabled especially in finding work or just doing all things that we take for granted. The last part of this is I am adventurous and I want that to stay the same because being outgoing with people as well as activities has helped me make friends, and its more fun to do stuff then just be scared. When I have gone to sleepaway camps Its been easy for me to make new friends because I am a generally outgoing person, so I would like to stay the same, and maybe even grow a little more in it. 

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Question 3: Who will I become? (10+ years from now)

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Question 3: Who will I become? (10+ years from now)