Personal Narrative: My Ethnic Identity
Who I am? In order to that question about my ethnic identity, I must first reflect upon my family. Old Highway 45 in Shannon, Mississippi is the town that I was born and raised. The community is called Old Union which sits on a hill just off the highway in rural northern parts of Shannon. As a child the only social environment I had was family gatherings, going to school and church functions that was all that mattered to my family. I am an African American female who came from a family of four other siblings. My mother and father both grew up on a farm, but refuse to stay in the community to work, so they went out to get public jobs. The factories had made it to the area and picking cotton for a living was over for most people. The economy
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According to research, there is known reason why high blood pressure is so common among African Americans, but the blame is on genetics and environmental factors. I have a 68 year African American old mother, who is a co-pastor of our church (Highs Chapel CME Church) in Shannon, Mississippi. She has been in the Christian ministry for about fourteen years at the same church. She never remarried after the divorce and death of my father. My father was only 27 years old when he was killed. My maternal and my paternal grandparents are African Americans and are deceased. My mother’s mother died when I was just a preschooler, I cannot remember her face, but I can remember the taste of her morning oatmeal. I shared great memories of my mother’s father; he lived to be well into his eighties. My father’s mother showed us how to be our neighbor’s keeper; she would load us up in the truck and carry us to the sick neighbor’s house so we could clean their home while they recover. I did not know the meaning of what my grandmother was trying to show us at the time, but now as an adult, I really appreciate what she was instilling into her grandchildren. I came from a predominately black neighborhood and the community was close knit because everybody was related in some form or fashions. My grandmother and all of her children stayed in the same area to share the land
According to research, there is known reason why high blood pressure is so common among African Americans, but the blame is on genetics and environmental factors. I have a 68 year African American old mother, who is a co-pastor of our church (Highs Chapel CME Church) in Shannon, Mississippi. She has been in the Christian ministry for about fourteen years at the same church. She never remarried after the divorce and death of my father. My father was only 27 years old when he was killed. My maternal and my paternal grandparents are African Americans and are deceased. My mother’s mother died when I was just a preschooler, I cannot remember her face, but I can remember the taste of her morning oatmeal. I shared great memories of my mother’s father; he lived to be well into his eighties. My father’s mother showed us how to be our neighbor’s keeper; she would load us up in the truck and carry us to the sick neighbor’s house so we could clean their home while they recover. I did not know the meaning of what my grandmother was trying to show us at the time, but now as an adult, I really appreciate what she was instilling into her grandchildren. I came from a predominately black neighborhood and the community was close knit because everybody was related in some form or fashions. My grandmother and all of her children stayed in the same area to share the land