Culturally Diverse Families Analysis

| Culturally Diverse Families | Reading Article #1 | | | |

|

Do you believe that the values held by scholars affect their interpretation of ethnic families? If so, can cite specific samples?
I believe values held by scholars do affect their interpretation of ethnic families. We can take two different ethnic scientists with different backgrounds from the article for an example. According to Daniel Moynihan (1965), a white scientist, black families were deteriorating and were also dysfunctional. Moynihan (1965) went on and recommended social policies that would encourage black families to use more ways of functioning like the majority of other white families were. As for Robert Hill (1972), a black scientist, he saw
resilience and strengths in black families and recommended social policies to build on both of those traits. Daniel Moynihan (1965) was raised in a white family therefore he was use to the ways of how white families functioned. That detail influenced on how he saw black families and just because they were different from his family and other white families he thought black families were dysfunctional. Robert Hill (1972) was part of a black family so what he observed was similar to what he was used to seeing in his own family. This helped him conclude that black families were resilient and had strength.
What are some of the ways in which your own values effect your understanding of culturally diverse families?
I was born in East Los Angeles and raised in South Central Los Angeles where Hispanic and black families were the majority of the population.
There are whites, Asians and other ethnicities but not nearly as much as Hispanics and African Americans. My parents moved a lot and from what I remember all the neighborhoods we lived in were made of mostly Hispanics, maybe one or two black families. It seemed like black families stuck to their own neighborhoods and Hispanics to their own as well. My values were very similar with the left side of my house neighbors, right side of my house, and neighbors from across the street. All my friends I hung out with were Hispanic, not because I am racist but because I really had no other choice, they were all Hispanic families in my neighborhood. Their homes were very similar to my home. They had religious pictures, watched the same shows my parents did, and acted the same way my family did. I was very comfortable going inside their homes because they made me feel like I was home. We had the same values. The religion we believed in, how the parents disciplined their kids and other different values as well. I had black friends at school but I never went over to their homes because my parents never allowed me to go further than 3 or 4 houses down the
street. I moved to Lancaster when I was 14.
Here in Lancaster I saw much more diversity. I made more friends that had different ethnicities. I even saw a difference in the neighborhood I moved to. There were Hispanics, African Americans, whites, and a few Philippinos. In school I always saw things that white people would get in trouble and only got a slap on the wrist for it. Then later on I would hear an African American explaining how if it was their mom they would of got beat and cussed out. As I grew older my parents would let me out more and hang out with my friends who lived further than just 3 or 4 houses down the street. This gave me a chance to go into my black friend's house. That was the first time I ever been inside a black family's house. It was much different than my home, I felt very uncomfortable. I didn't know if I should introduce myself or say hi and keep walking. There was a lot of yelling across the rooms and other things that I was not use to. When I experienced happening at my black friend's house I remembered what the black girl said at school said about her mom beating her and cussing her out because it was happening right in front of me. At that time my mentality was like Daniel Moynihan's (1965) and thought they were dysfunctional just because my family did not act that way. Along the way I made more black friends and met their families and actually realized what Robert Hill (1972) stated about black families having strengths. I noticed all of them had
each other's backs. If one got hurt another family member would be there to help. As well as a family member had gone to jail for some reason or had some type of problem in their life, another family member was always there to help. They were humble just like my family was. There was a time when I didn't understand other cultural diverse family values but after experiencing what I did, I can now understand much better.
What can you do to alter some of your negative views of other families?
I believe as the old saying says "Don't judge a book by its cover". Nobody should judge a family just because they're not the same as yours. That is one of the ways I can do to alter my views of other families. I'm going to meet and get to know other families and not compare my values to theirs. Even if I don't agree with their values and beliefs, I can't label them as being weird or wrong because in reality that would be wrong of me. Realizing what I did with my black friends families made me become more sensitive on how I see other families. I can understand them much better now and I'm also older, I'm able to distinguish between what's right and what's wrong and judging a family for being different is definitely wrong.