1. Who am I? 
I am son, brother, uncle, college student, artist, gamer, passionate person, hard worker, kind, caring, Mexican American.

2. Who do I pretend to be? 
I pretend to be someone who has it all figured out but in fact I’m just figuring it all out as I go with one foot in front of the other.

3. Who do people think I am? 
People think I am a person who makes logical decisions, compassionate, organized, and proactive. When making big decisions I always try to be as logical as possible that sometimes I tend to overthink things to myself. I do believe I am very proactive and always try to make things happen for myself rather wait around hoping they happen.

4. Who do I wish I could be? 
I wish I could be a person that doesn’t over think certain situations to the point that I sometimes stress myself out.

5. How has race or ethnic identity played a role in any of these responses? 
I believe that both race and ethnicity played a huge role because it molded me into the person I am today and was basically the blueprint to my upbringing.

Theme 2: First Experience With Race Activity 

1. What was your first experience with race? 
I would have to say my first experience with race was the time my dad got pulled over by the cops when I was young and he was scared and nervous because he was here illegally at that time. The cops  took the car away because my dad didn’t have proper documentation and we had to walk to school the rest of the way.

2. How old were you? 
I was five years old and my dad was driving me, my brothers and sisters to school. 

3. What emotions do you associate with the experience? 
The emotions that I associated with this experience were to be scared of the cops when I was little because they would treat minorities with disrespect and unfair.

4. Have you ever talked about the experience? 
Yes we have talked about this experience but only among family and close friends. 

5. How have your early experiences with race shaped your worldview? 
My experiences with race have shaped my worldview to the fact that minorities in this country get treated unfairly and unjustly. 

Theme 3: Positive Sense of Self Brainstorm

I believe that the connection of having a positive sense of self is when our experiences with race and identity are positive themselves. I believe that our experiences with identity and race is what shapes us into the people we are today and how we view ourselves in society. I do believe that a person who has a negative view of their sense of self can have a positive sense of ethnic identity. The reason I believe this is because when someone has a negative sense of self is more personal to how they view themselves and can be completely different from their ethnic experiences. Yes I would assume that a person who identifies positively with African American Psychology might have a stronger sense of self and ethnic identity because they see themselves belonging and fitting in with a group of people they identify with and have things in common which gives them a sense of belonging and piece of mind.

1. The concept of Ubuntu is uniquely African. After reading the assigned reading and analyzing the short video by Dr. Nelson Mandela, do you think that the spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well today in African American culture? Explain your answer and give an example as to why you have chosen your position.  I, in fact do believe that the spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well today in the African American culture. One example of Ubuntu that I have witnessed among the African American community would the Black Lives Matter movement. I believe this because if there is an injustice or brutality against an African American it affects the African American community as a whole. It reminds of the Ubuntu concept that, “I am a person through other people. My humanity is tied to yours.” Another recent example of abuntu that showed  community unity would be the police brutality and murder of George Floyd were the African American community came together to fight for justice for the life taken away by those who are meant to protect the community. Nelson Mandela said that caring is one example of Abuntu, and the African American community showed that the live of one person matter and is important to them. Another aspect of Abuntu is community and the African American community has proven to show that they a strong and caring community that values every life in their community.

2. Compare and contrast in detail and provide examples of any parallels/similarities that you have been able to identify between African cultures and African American culture. Has this concept of Ubuntu changed your worldview at all? Explain. One of the biggest similarity between African culture and African American culture would be strong unity among their communities. An example of that would be as I mentioned earlier the spirit of Abuntu in the African culture and the Black Lives Matter movement in the African American culture. Yes the concept of Abuntu has definitely changed my worldview. The concept of Abuntu showed me that we’re all tied together and that if something affects one person it really affects us all as a community because we’re all in this together as humanity. I learned that Abuntu doesn’t just mean one thing that it has has many aspects that make it up. 

THEORY 2: 7 Concepts of Afrocentric Psychology

1. Choose and define the concept that you feel is most present in the African American community. Provide an example of how you have witnessed the concept you have chosen. I believe that the concept of Maafa is most present in the African American community. This concept refers to the oppression, humiliation, discrimination, and destruction of the African American people to this very date. We see examples of this every time we see police brutality and murder of innocent African Americans, such as the unjustified murder Breonnna Taylor.

2. Then, define and provide an example of the concept that you feel is least present in the African American community. Also, provide an example. It’s hard to pick a concept that is least present in the African American community but if I had to choose one for the sake of the assignment it would be inclusive metaphysical epistemology which refers to the use of affective and cognitive syntheses of information as a way of knowing. Knowledge doesn’t only come from logic and that reality cannot be limited by what we can perceive by our five senses. The reason I choose this concept is because I don’t really get what it means. 

THEORY 3: 7 Principles of Nguzo Saba

 

The principal of Nguzo Saba that I choose is Ujamaa. Ugamaa means to build a business and maintain it so that they can profit from it together. This principle resonates with me and I feel I have seen this value in action in the African American community when I see African Americans supporting black owned businesses and helping black businesses succeed by giving them their business instead of shopping at chain restaurants or stores.

1. Within the category of Natal Measures, I chose birthplace of self, siblings, and natural parents. I believe parents and siblings have the most important and most huge influence in a person ethnic self identity because we learn our way of life from them, we get our culture and traditions passed down to us from them. I also believe birthplace of self is also a huge influence on how we self identify ethnically because we learn social customs from people we interact with.

2. Within the category behavioral measures, I chose friendship and acquaintance affiliative patterns, music, clothing, food, and participation in cultural and religious activities. The reason I chose these is because I believe each one of these directly affects and influences how a person develops their ethnic self identity. These become the core of person ethnic self identity in my opinion.

3. Within the category subjective measures, I chose self identification of a preferred ethnic group and role models and preferred reference groups. The reason I chose self identification of a preferred reference group is because I believe people choose who they want who they want to identify with base on who they feel they have similarities with. I also chose role models and preferred reference groups because people usually identify with people they look up too.

4. Within the category situation contextual measures, I chose house-family, work, education, religious, and community. The reason I chose these is because all these mold you into the person you become because they all affect you in directly throughout your life.

3.2 Padlet post: Multi-Group Ethnic Identity Measure

1. My Multigroup Ethnic Identity measure score is 44. 

2. To me this score means that I have very strong ethnic roots.

3. I think that this means that I have a strong bond with the Mexican-American because I am proud of my roots and represent and support my people when ever I get the chance too. 

4. I wasn’t surprised at all by anything in this analysis as it just showed me what I already knew about myself.

3.3 Padlet Post: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

1. My score after taking the Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale was 28.

2. What my score means to me and what I understand about my self esteem is that I have above average self esteem. I believe this means that I happy with who I am and what I am doing with myself. I also believe that it means that I have a pretty strong sense of my value.

3. I believe my score is the number it is because I try to never put myself down when things don’t go my way and just remind myself to try harder next time. I’m also proud of myself for the things I do succeed in and give my self credit and remind myself that hard work pays off. I remind myself that I usually be happy with who I am, where I’m at, and I’ll get where I want to be through putting myself out there and succeeding in anything I set myself into.

3.4 Padlet Post: Racial Identity Development Post

1. The stage of racial identity development I believe I’m in is integrative awareness.

2. I personally believe I am in the last stage of integrative awareness because I know there is much more to me than my gender and race. I acknowledge that there is other aspects of my identity besides my race that influence my ethnic self identity.

3. An example of how I know I have passed through the other stages is that I know that my success in society is not based on my race rather my accomplishment and how hard I work to get where I am at. My success in solely based on my skills and abilities that get me where I want to be.

4. One thing I learned about this process is that people of color of color who direct their anger about racism towards whites leads them to feel they can only belong with others in their own racial group. They feel as if only people in their racial group can understand them and they avoid whites. This is also known as emergence in the stages of racial identity development chart.

3.5 Padlet post: Find Your Racial Identity Source

This resource is important to me because it talks about the racial barriers and experiences of Mexican Americans which I strongly identify as. This sources explains how Mexicans are heterogeneous in our racial characteristics because our racial heritage is a mixture of European, Indigenous, African ancestry which I found very interesting to learn about.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846170/

1. Please post a response to the google slide above. What types racism from slide 2 have you seen in the world? What examples from slide 3 have you seen in the world?  

The two types of racism I have seen in the world from slide two would be individual and institutional racism. The examples of racism I have seen in the world from slide three would be internalized and structural racism.

2. From the chapter reading, do you think that we live in a post-racial society? Please state why or why not. 

I personally do not believe that we live in a post racial society. We still see a lot of racial discrimination happening in this day and age. We still hear about everyday in the news how cops mistreat minorities and wrongfully racial profile us.

3. What is your personal definition of race and do you think that race is a social construct, a biological construct or something else? Please explain your reasoning. 

My personal definition of race would be groups of people that come from the same geographical area. I believe that race is a social construct used to describe the physical differences of people around the world and put them into groups. 

4. Search and find one resource regarding race being a social or biological concept and post it to your Padlet. State its significance and if you agree or disagree with the resource based on your definition of race.

I found this resource significant because it explains why race is a social construct and how race is human invented classification system. I can definitely agree with this resource about race being a social construct based on my personal definition of race. https://centerforhealthprogress.org/blog/race-social-construct/

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. State its significance. 

One thing that stood out to me from this unit was learning about internalized racial oppression. The reason this is significant is because internalized racism is one of the most neglected topics of the affects of racism. What I found interest was learning about the first psychological study on internalized racial oppression called the “doll studies” were black children were given the option to pick between white or black dolls. The black children’s preference of white dolls over black dolls was a sign of racial self hatred. 

2. What do you think are the strengths and challenges of the Black family? Please state why you think so and provide examples.

I think that resilience to overcome societal hardships is a strength of the Black family. Challenges that the Black family faced was that their community was crippled by the fact that they had no generational wealth to be passed down. The Black family had a lack of social and economic upward mobility. 

3. How do concepts such as racial socialization affect parents and children in Black families? Please explain.

I believe that racial socialization affects parents and children in black families in a positive way because it allows them build ethnic pride and provides family and children with black cultural experiences that helps them identify with things that are Afrocentric. Racial socialization can have positive affect on black families because being part of cultural events can lead to a higher racial identity development and higher self esteem. 

4. Based on our reading, what factors do you think have impacted Black families the most since slavery and why?

I think what has impacted Black families the most since slavery has been the war on drugs in black communities. The reason I believe that the war on drugs impacted Black families is because it affected marriage rates in the African American community. The rate of black man never married skyrocketed during the war on drugs which left black families broken with more hardships to face.

5. Search and find one academic resource that helps you understand this topic better and post it to your Padlet. State three main points from the resource and how it helps you understand this topic.

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=esr

The first main point that this resource helped me understand the topic better is that provided discussions of recent and previous theoretical perspectives on the African American family. The second point is that presented evidence of how kin interaction is important and how it affects the African American family. The third point is that this resource has debunked the many misconceptions surrounding the quality and nature of African American family.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. State its significance.

One thing that I learned that stood out the most is the strong bond of family that African Americans can create with people that they are not related to by blood. It has something they have been doing since the times of slavery and continue to do to this day. Being party of the African American is like being part of a big family and I believe everyone could learn from that.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846170/

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=esr

2. How does the Imposter Syndrom affect a student in their educational journey AND into their career experiences? 

I believe that imposter syndrome affects a student in their educational journey by discouraging them to succeed in their studies because they might not feel like they’re good enough. Students might encounter feeling of anxiety, stress, and depression from having to work hard to prove themselves and their work good enough. This constant fear of not being good enough can follow them into their career where they might feel incompetent which might cause them not to work efficiently and effectively to perform to the best of their abilities.

3. How does the Imposter Syndrome specifically affect the self-esteem and mental health of African American women in the workplace? 

I believe the imposter syndrome affects the self-esteem and mental health of African American women in the workplace in the sense that they might feel like coworkers might view them as incompetent and this might cause them to have very low self esteem which can cause them feelings of anxiety or stress to perform to what they believe is expected of them.

4. How do race and gender play into the African American woman's experience in the workplace?

 I believe that race and gender play into the African American women’s experience in the workplace in the sense that they feel like their not good enough for the simple fact that their women and let alone an African American women in the workplace. African American women  feel the pressure of having to work extra hard for their hard work to be notice and valued.

5. State one strategy that you believe would be successful in addressing this issue and improving the workplace for women of color. 

One strategy that I believe would be successful in addressing this issue and improving the work place for women of color would be to acknowledge their good work and commend them on their good work. Giving them feedback on their good work can have a positive impact and help to stop feeling like they’re not good enough.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

 One thing that stood out to me from this unit was the to learn that a white teacher is thirty percent less likely to think that a black student would graduate from a four year college and forty percent less likely to think that a black student would graduate from high school. It is sad to believe that white teachers expect less academic success from a student based on the color of their skin which definitely does not define how far a student success can reach. I also found  it intriguing how severe imposter syndrome affects African American women in school and in the workplace.

2.What stereotypes are perpetuated when racial microaggressions are thrown around towards a person of color?
     Stereotypes that are perpetuated when racial microaggressions are thrown around a person of color are that a person’s can only perform to certain extent because of their race, a person expectations are limited to their race, or a person can only have certain qualities based on that person’s race . 
     

3.Considering Intersectionality, what other issues does this theme affect in the African American community?
     Other issues that intersectionality affect in the African American community is that it creates wage inequality, hiring discrimination, and causes African American to experience racial inequality that is linked to intersectionality.

4.State how these theories of intersectionality, racial microaggressions, bias or white privilege affect one's understanding of "sense of self" or ethnic identity?
     I believe that these theories of intersectionality, racial microaggressions, bias or white privileged affects one’s sense of self or ethnic identity by psychologically affecting how people of color see themselves as not being good enough compare to white people, making them feel worthless and under appreciated.

5. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet.
State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue.

https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-022-00450-1

6. State a strategy that you feel can be successful to address the use of microaggressions especially when the offender is unaware of how their reactions affect people of color.

7. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.