Critical Race Reflection

2356 Words5 Pages

As I reflect back on my childhood years, and utilizing a Critical Race Study lens, I can see both positive and negative aspects of my early onset experiences. In this paper, I will focus on both the negative and positive aspects of Internalized oppression/racism, as well as, identifying experiences in my life in which I was considered ‘privileged’ and how my different intersectionalities shaped and molded my views in my current helping profession role. As a child, I experienced both Internalized oppression and discrimination from family members, which contrasted with experiences of being privileged in comparison to other members of my family. I was raised with a strong catholic background imposed on us by my father; church every Sunday, …show more content…

Years would pass without any interactions or exchanges, until a family event united us together. The topic would resurface in regards to why our family was disconnected, my mother’s response always the same ‘We’re different from them’. It wasn’t until my teen years when I was able to make the connection. I was preparing for my High School graduation, and as my family began to receive the news about my upcoming ceremony, I realized I was the first (in both maternal and paternal sides of the family) to graduate from High School. It all became clear, it wasn’t me as an individual that my family did not accept, it was my parents decision to leave their comfort zone (being surrounded by family and kin) in hopes of being able to provide us a safer environment in which we would thrive individually; the idea that they chose our future as a substitute for family unity. In Harro’s Article, The Cycle Of Socialization, he discusses How our identities are given to us without our knowledge or concern from the moment we are born. Therefore, we have no control over what privilege we are given.(Harro,P.2). My privilege was something that was given to me at birth, it was a reflection of my parents’ hard work, nevertheless, to others, a sign of my parents’

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