My Culture by ashleyobleton@gmail.com

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-10 21:16:37 UTC

My Family

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-10 21:16:37 UTC

My family is extremely close knit and I have three siblings, two brothers and 1 sister. My sister lives in Dallas, Texas and is an even planner, my older brother is a professor and Stanford University, my youngest brother is in 8th grade and I am a third grade teacher. My parents are extremely big on family and made sure that we all grew up eating dinner together and supporting each other at graduations, games and any other extra curricular activity that we were involved in.

Dating for generations back my Paternal side is from Columbus, Georgia and my Maternal side is from Greenville, Alabama. In my

Beliefs and Morals

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-10 21:23:56 UTC

My family comes from a Baptist background. We all went to church together, with my grandparents every Sunday as well as Bible Study, Sunday School, and Vacation Bible School.

Being from a Traditional Baptist church, my family is extremely conservative however two of the children, myself included are not as conservative as the rest of our family.

All of the kids served on the usher board and sang in the children's choir.

My dad is a Deacon which means he has a group of people he is responsible for. If any of his church members were ever sick we would go with him to visit his sick and shut in list.

Traditions

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-10 22:31:59 UTC

My family is big on the holidays. With Thanksgiving coming up I can hardly control my excitement. My mom always cooks a huge thanksgiving dinner and we invite immediate and extended family even family friends. Food is the most important part of Thanksgiving Day and we always have all of my mom's homemade cakes from Red Velvet to fluffy pound cake.

We also have an annual Obleton Family Tea that takes place in April. Everyone dresses up in sundresses and hats for a big tea party, again food is very important here as well.

Family Tree

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-12 23:03:08 UTC

My great grandparents on my mothers side are Ada and Effie Chetham. They had several children and their names are Bonnie Sue Joe Neal, Cherry, Mattie Francis, Dorthy Jean, John, and Ruby Nell Mattie Francis is my grandmother and she married my grandfather named Charlie Lewis. They had one child and that is my mother Carolynn Obleton. She married my father Eddie Obleton. My parents had four children Keri Obleton, Brent Obleton, Ashley Obleton, and Gabriel Obleton. My sister Keri is the only one with children and she has Kaelyn and Kaia Parker Berry.

Stereotypes.

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-12 23:36:19 UTC

People often think that African- Americans are poor and uneducated. All of my siblings except one because he is still in Middle school have a Master's degree. My father has his doctorate and is the most educated man I know. Not all black people are poor and uneducated there are poor people in every race.

Black people play basketball. All of my family played soccer two of the four siblings played at a collegiate level with full scholarship offers.

Black people can't swim. This stereotype is interesting to me. I lot of Black people swim including myself although I prefer to just float around in the pool.

Research

ashleyobleton1 — 2016-11-12 23:44:52 UTC

As I was researching the African-American culture a lot of the articles appeared biased which almost made me feel like research is pointless. People can basically write whatever they want about a culture and people will believe it.

The black family is probably one of the most welcoming and hardworking families I have encountered although I can only go off of my experience. My parents both have worked extremely hard to provide for their family and provide each of their children with opportunities that they were not awarded.

One positive thing that I found is that Family Reunions are a big deal in the Black family. Yes!!!!! Family reunions are a huge deal and are the most fun ever. The elders are treated with the upmost respect and the kids are excited to help out whenever we can. Family is the most important thing which is why reunions are an integral part to our foundation.