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Running Head: Cultural Biography

My Cultural Biography
Yolanda Johnson
October 3, 2014

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Running Head: Cultural Biography
Introduction
One interesting aspect of life is having the ability to find your own destination and develop
the responsibility to determine that specific path to reach that ultimate destination. For some
people the path is straight and easy to travel, but for others, there may be lots of dead ends and
winding roads throughout the journey. Therefore, it can be beneficial to understand the various
influences throughout our lives. Some influences can be positive and others may be negative.
However, the overall importance resides in ones ability to understand the various relationships
and interactions that may derive from friends, family members, religious fellowship, associates,
and other subliminal affiliations. Through this cultural biography, some aspects of life are
highlighted from positionalitiy, family culture, and intersectionality to gain better cultural
awareness.
Positionality/Multiple Identities
After women have children or for some maybe it is before they have children depending
on their individual mentality and age, life changes significantly. Things that were previously
viewed as insignificant can now be seen as imperative, such as saving money, setting long term
goals or finishing high school and later college. Turning points can occur in someones life when
they least expect them. Therefore, it can be easy to finish high school and graduate from college
with an associates degree in a small amount of time because of the newly developed motivation.
In contrast to changing, there can be difficult adjustments on a social level because everyone
may not be able to adapt to the new you. This phenomenon can include family members as well
as best-friends that shared common interests as yours prior to your transformation, which makes
past relationships that were once strong presently feel strained and unstable. The strength that
derives from having knowledge of ones self, along with resilience and confidence can subside
negative influences. It was crucial for me to attend college. Being the first in my family to obtain
a degree, gave me the confidence that was needed to further my life in a more positive direction.
Tenacity was always embedded in me. At the age of sixteen, obtaining a car was easy for me to
do by saving my money from my first job at Dairy Queen. This experience of independence,
gave me a significant sense of accomplishment and as a result, a more humble demeanor was
developed.
Dilemmas of Americanization
Some things are easy to overcome because of a persons cultural awareness of various
aspects within the situation; however, other things may not be as obvious; and therefore, people
may never know how they lack social understanding within that particular area. For example, it
can be hard to identify with Muslim customs and traditions because of a close connection with
Christian values and beliefs; so therefore, a person may subliminally isolate themselves within
the familiar beliefs and disregard or discriminate towards any opposition. Also, the same affect
can be geared towards education. If a person is the only family member to graduate from college
and become successful or be viewed as successful within a community, it can influence negative
social interactions from both directions. For example, family members may see the educated
individual as more arrogant and less layman. In contrast, the educated individual may also
subliminally see the family members as lower status. It can be hard to change view-points

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Running Head: Cultural Biography
because of the variations of acquired knowledge. However, one must understand that knowledge
can derive from various dynamics that may not always be enhanced or influenced by book
education. Therefore, a significant amount of understanding can be gained from both dynamics.
Other issues can derive from past traumatic experiences from other cultures such as experiencing
discrimination based on race, gender, and social class which can have a negative effect on the
way you render support services to that particular dominate group.
Family Culture
Family culture is the most significant aspect to understand because it highlights peoples
influences from birth to later in life. Some things within a family culture carries long term affects
on an individuals beliefs and value systems. Religion can be one of the key aspects within a
family culture that sets the tone for morals and values. A negative aspect to personal family
culture is in the individuals capability to look past their own cultural values and beliefs to
become more productive in a helping profession such as Social Work. For instance, some people
may believe in same sex marriage and others may hold strong acquisition in the opposition of
same sex marriage because of personal values and beliefs that may have derived from a persons
family culture. Also, other examples may include pre-marital sex or abortion. However, family
culture can hinder the way people view clients subliminally within the Social Work profession.
In contrast, it can also be a positive aspect to have particular values that derive from family
culture because the understanding in the significance of a persons own family culture can help
that individual to become more relatable to clients. This makes it important for people to identify
their familys culture because sometimes it is easy to take our adapted attitudes and values for
granted as we age. Therefore, we may not recognize how we carry the same feelings about
ourselves and other individuals that may be viewed as different throughout childhood into our
adult lives.
Cultural Awareness of other Inventory
As a child, people that live in lower economic neighborhoods tend to only interact with
their own race, especially if they are of African American decent. Therefore, the notion of more
diversity in todays society depends upon an individuals economic class status. Of course some
people within these communities may interact with others of different nationalities in a small
sense, but it is in a very different locality. Such as having a relationship with the Indian guy that
owns the local gas station or becoming acquainted with the Caucasian lady your mom takes care
of. Some areas of society may have a mixed social class that carries a larger diverse atmosphere.
Areas with diverse social class and ethnicity are sometimes linked together by having a larger
school district which causes students to interact more abundantly in diverse settings. Being a
child with minimal interactions of other ethnicities can create an interest in social dynamics that
pertains to the unknown.
Intersectionality (Internal and External)
The connections that can be shared with a group can be seen every day through a grocery
store visit or even sometimes a simple trip to the bank within a certain community. Race is an
external attribute in intersectionality that is shared within the African American community.

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Running Head: Cultural Biography
However, the attributes are seen commonly or every day; so therefore, people that share
significant similarities sometimes have a tendency to overlook there commonalities and only
focus on their differences. For example, a young African American female looking for an entry
level position in a company that has a large percentage of other African American females may
find it difficult to gain employment or receive a promotion because she display specific attributes
that may perpetuate intimidation from other female employees. Other times intersectionality can
influence a positive reaction that leads to social growth and positive outcomes from individuals
having the capacity to identify with their commonalities, such as social clubs for single mothers
or other social groups that base a positive influence on their abilities to relate to one another
because of their internal Intersectionality.
Conclusion
The knowledge of oneself through various dynamics of social connections can be a powerful
ability to have within the Social Work profession. Positionality, americanization, family culture,
cultural awareness, and intersectionality are all significant components that lead to self
awareness. It is imperative that social workers develop the ability to identify with their weakness,
strength, and subliminal feelings to becoming productive in a helping profession. When we
obtain the ability to understand ourselves, we build upon our own personal strength and
capabilities to develop emotionally.