Essay style autobiography of your culture

PLEASES MAKE UP SOMETHING FOR THIS PAPER but maybe something to do with irish and german things
For this assignment, you will write an essay-style autobiography of your culture. By “essay style” I mean that your paper should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion; you are writing a formal paper using paragraphs and full sentences – no bullets or lists. Consider the variables and cultural questions below as you think about and write your autobiography
Here are some variables typically used in defining “culture” that can be incorporated into the autobiog-raphy
-Family composition
-Spirituality/religion
-Economics
-Death
-Marriage
-Gender/sexual orientation
-Clothing/style of dress
-Children
-Politics
-Education
-Race and ethnicity
-Religion
-Age
-Profession
-Geography
-Language
Some questions to guide you in writing your autobiography (you are not limited to these):

-How would you describe your family? What is in your family “culture” (in terms of some of the cultural factors listed above)? What is the cultural heritage you inherited from your family? Are there some cultural traditions that you will keep the same, or do you think some will some change?

-What is the predominant worldview(s) you were raised with, what is valued, and how are those values translated into what you do and who you are? What made you who you are today in terms of your beliefs about culture, race, religion, sexual orientation, and so on?
Among what types of people might you feel most uncomfortable? What might you fear about these other types of people? On the other hand, how are you like these people?

-What culturally related issues do you feel you need to work on (if any)?

Instructions for Writing the Self-Study Paper

For this project, you will be expected to use at least one­ of two forms of research to incorporate into your autobiography: (1) an interview with a family member – or – (2) incorporate some research conducted on a specific aspect of your particular family culture (this must be from a credible source). For example, you could incorporate some research about one part of your family’s traditions, history, location, heritage, etc. I want to stress that one of these two forms of research is needed to supplement (but not replace) your own thoughts and perceptions about your culture.

The paper should include: 1) a title page; 2) citations within the paper, as needed (for example, we provide citations within the paper for any interviews and research sources such newspaper articles or Internet websites, etc.); and 3) a reference page that lists the sources of information in APA-style formatting. (Special Note: When using APA style formatting, personal interviews that are conducted are cited within a paper, but do not need to be listed on a reference page. Published sources, such as news articles, information from websites, etc. must be cited within the paper and listed on the reference page.)
Papers need to be 5-6 pages in length. The title page and reference page are not included in the page length. Papers turned in with fewer than 5 pages for the body of the paper will be returned to the student with a zero grade. Put another way: partial credit is not given for papers that do not meet the page-length requirement for our upper division course.

Do not use general Internet sites such as Wikipedia, eHow, Answer.com, etc. as “research” sources for this paper – although those sources (their references) can lead to other, more substantive Internet sources.

These are the instructions from my professor.

This is a sample paper:
Living a Sheltered Life

Even though I am only a quarter of the way through the semester of my CJ 303 Diversity In American Culture, it seems for the first time in my life I have come to recognize the complexity of American culture. Of course when I say this I struggle with trying to put it in as delicate of terminology as I can without going into somewhat of an aggravated rant. I do want to say that for the most part I am proud to be an American.

I am grouped into a cultural group whose racial labeling has evolved or changed throughout history. What I considered to be the less offensive references to my cultural group are colored, Negro, black, and African American. It should be noted that when I say less offensive that is my own opinion. It should be noted society’s most recent connotation of my racial group as African American gives emphasis to a country of origin establishing some country of origin. Opposed to earlier terms such as colored, Negro which is Spanish or Portuguese for the color black, and black which are race based describing racial or physical qualities (Smith, 1992).

A few years ago I was visiting family in Macon, Georgia where I was born and while I was down there I asked one of my cousins if would take me down to the county clerk’s office to get a copy of my birth certificate. When I got the copy I noticed that there was a space on the certificate to indicate the race of my mother and father. I should probably at this point say that I was born in 1958. In the space my mother and father both were shown to be Colored. My cousin who was with me at the time is a number of years younger than I am and she said that on her certificate her parents were shown as Negro. In an article that I read online the author describes these changes as an attempt by Blacks to redefine themselves and to gain respect and standing in society that has held them to be subordinate and inferior (Smith, 1992).
During the time that I was growing up my father was enlisted in the military and we moved quite bit during my childhood. All the time that my father was in the military we lived on a military base and pretty much only associated with people that belong to the military community as well. Probably a third of my time that I was enrolled in grade school I lived in Germany and the schools I attended were also on the military bases. Now that I look back at it I would have to say that during the majority of the time that I was growing up I was sheltered for a lot of what I have just recently come to realize was the prejudice that exists in America.
When I was growing up I remember my mother always telling me that I could be or accomplish anything I put my mind to. She would always stress that it was very important for me to go to college because I needed an education to do all of these things I wanted to do. For this reason I believe to this very day I am not afraid of any of the challenges that I face. I’ve always believed that there is nothing I cannot do…that is until I’ve tried to do it and find out that maybe that is one of the things that is more than I can do…but believe me I will make several attempts to accomplish whatever the task before accepting defeat.
This past weekend my father who lives in Kansas now came to visit me in Texas where I am currently living. After reading the material in the book I thought that my father who was born in 1936 would be a good source of information about some of the challenges he faced when he was growing up. I have to say I was amazed at some of the things he shared with me. He told me about how everything was separate for blacks. He told me of how places, which I will not name here, had separate lunch counters that black would order their food from but there was no place to sit down to eat your food (Name Removed, personal communication, Date Removed).
He also told me of how and why he had entered into the military at the age of 16 when he was required to 17. He spoke of an incident when he a couple of his guy friends and a couple of his other girls that were friends had wanted to go to the market to buy a watermelon but to get there they had to go across town and in doing so they had to go through a white neighborhood. He said that on the way back they were coming through an area where there was a playground area and the kids that were there say them and came over started harassing them and knocked the watermelon that he was carrying off of his shoulder. Well, of course at that point my dad who has never had a problem voicing or demonstrating his disapproval in situations got into an altercation with these individuals. The results of the altercation were no more than bumps and bruises to go around but the next day he said the police were looking for them and his parents had to get him out of town for a couple of months (Name Removed, personal communication, Date Removed).
My father said that after that he and a couple of his friends decided that the military was the only place they could be and make a decent living. He said that in the military being black he was treated relatively well but he knew there were reasons he wasn’t getting the promotions that he desired. He said that at the time he joined up they had just started allowing the blacks to live in the same barracks as the whites (Name Removed, personal communication, Date Removed).
This was the first time that I had heard of any of these things from my dad. I asked him why I don’t remember experiencing any of the hardships that I have read about blacks going through during the time that I was growing up. He told me that the fact that we lived on a military base the majority of the time we didn’t really have to associate with any other people outside that military and being within that type of environment all of the families treated each other with equal respect. He told me that in a lot of the cases most of the people in the quarters that we lived in were of different cultural backgrounds, which I didn’t notice at the time, and there were actually very few if any blacks that lived where we lived most of the time (Name Removed, personal communication, Date Removed).
This type of upbringing has made it possible for me to be comfortable in a setting of any type of people. When I married, I married a woman that was white. I have three children that are biracial or as my daughter calls it mixed. They are all in their mid-twenties. I have always taught them that everyone is equal. I myself did not enlist in the military so my children have been exposed to what I call the real world. I have been talking to my daughter a lot about my American Culture class and she just shakes her head at me and my ignorance to what goes on in the world and how I somehow missed seeing some of the prejudices that were around me.
Now that I have gotten involved in this class and I been enlightened as to what I have missed during my sheltered life I don’t know whether to be upset or glad that I was not exposed to so much of what was going on around me. I don’t know if I had been out in the real world I would have put the same amount of efforts into accomplishing the things that I have. I do believe I owe a lot to my parents for making the effort that they did to protect me from the things that they had to go through when they were growing up.
Just as my parents had done for me I have done that same for my children in promoting to them the importance of getting a good education so that they can accomplish the things in life that they want to. But now that I am approaching the completion of this phase of my education I have some serious concerns about just how much an education will help me in achieving the things I want to in the rest of my life. From what I have discovered thus far is that even with the education you have to be able to get the position you want. If there are barriers of entry to these positions that are controlled by people that possess a mentality that all human being are not created equal what good is an education. I’m still going to do what my mother said and get my education. I believe that parents are the key factor in determining the type of culture that is exists within you and within the generations to follow.

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