Cultural Autobiography
Human Relations in a Multicultural Society
Date: August 2018 – December 2018
Competencies: Self-Awareness lv. 2,3&4, Knowledge & Understanding lv. 2,3&4
Competencies: Self-Awareness lv. 2,3&4, Knowledge & Understanding lv. 2,3&4
Summary
As part of my Human Relations in a Multicultural Society class, I wrote a Cultural Autobiography about myself. It included different sections on specific microcultures, including family composition, generation, geography, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, education, and language. I was able to reflect on the parts of my identity that make me unique, as well as how different aspects of my identity may help or hinder my status and ease with which I go through life.
As part of my Human Relations in a Multicultural Society class, I wrote a Cultural Autobiography about myself. It included different sections on specific microcultures, including family composition, generation, geography, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, education, and language. I was able to reflect on the parts of my identity that make me unique, as well as how different aspects of my identity may help or hinder my status and ease with which I go through life.
Reflection
Growing up as a white boy in small-town America, I never really felt like I was unique. There were a whole lot of people who looked and spoke like me growing up. Writing my cultural autobiography forced me to look past the surface of myself and really dig down into who I was and how I relate to and am different from other people (Awareness lv. 2).
As I went through the various categories in my autobiography, I had to learn baseline information about different microcultures to be able to reflect off (Knowledge lv. 2). I was able to reflect in the family composition, gender, and geography sections the privileges that traits completely out of my control had brought. By being born as a man into a two-parent family in the Midwest, I have had a ‘head-start’ of sorts on some people my entire life. Through this unknown advantage, I can potentially perpetuate a system of inequality, and thus must be purposeful in the actions and decisions I make (Awareness lv. 4). I also got to reflect on how privileged I am to receive an education, and think back to a project I’d done in 5th Grade about Three Cups of Tea, which told the story of a nurse turned humanitarian who fought for girl’s education in Pakistan and Afghanistan (Knowledge lv. 3).
I was also able to reflect on the drawbacks of growing up in a minority religion. Though I identify with both Christian and Jewish beliefs, I am somewhere in the middle, distinctly different from both faiths. Due to my beliefs, I did not celebrate the same holidays as other kids growing up and faced teasing and prejudices from my fellow students. This life experience has helped me to be very cognizant in how I treat people that are different from me, and helps keep me from making rash decisions on somebody’s character based on what they believe or how they act on the surface (Awareness lv. 3). During my Human Relations in a Multicultural Society class, we got to hear from two girls at MNSU who practiced Islam, to get a personal understanding of what it’s like to be Muslim. I thought it was very cool to hear what was important to those girls, especially since the Islamic faith has been such a hot-topic issue in the United States recently. As I listened to them, I realized I had to forget what I knew about Muslims from broad generalizations, just like I would not want somebody to generalize my beliefs based off of their view of the average Christian (Knowledge lv. 4).
Writing my Cultural Autobiography helped me to learn the benefits of reflective, honest writing, and will help me to become a more transparent person in the future.
Growing up as a white boy in small-town America, I never really felt like I was unique. There were a whole lot of people who looked and spoke like me growing up. Writing my cultural autobiography forced me to look past the surface of myself and really dig down into who I was and how I relate to and am different from other people (Awareness lv. 2).
As I went through the various categories in my autobiography, I had to learn baseline information about different microcultures to be able to reflect off (Knowledge lv. 2). I was able to reflect in the family composition, gender, and geography sections the privileges that traits completely out of my control had brought. By being born as a man into a two-parent family in the Midwest, I have had a ‘head-start’ of sorts on some people my entire life. Through this unknown advantage, I can potentially perpetuate a system of inequality, and thus must be purposeful in the actions and decisions I make (Awareness lv. 4). I also got to reflect on how privileged I am to receive an education, and think back to a project I’d done in 5th Grade about Three Cups of Tea, which told the story of a nurse turned humanitarian who fought for girl’s education in Pakistan and Afghanistan (Knowledge lv. 3).
I was also able to reflect on the drawbacks of growing up in a minority religion. Though I identify with both Christian and Jewish beliefs, I am somewhere in the middle, distinctly different from both faiths. Due to my beliefs, I did not celebrate the same holidays as other kids growing up and faced teasing and prejudices from my fellow students. This life experience has helped me to be very cognizant in how I treat people that are different from me, and helps keep me from making rash decisions on somebody’s character based on what they believe or how they act on the surface (Awareness lv. 3). During my Human Relations in a Multicultural Society class, we got to hear from two girls at MNSU who practiced Islam, to get a personal understanding of what it’s like to be Muslim. I thought it was very cool to hear what was important to those girls, especially since the Islamic faith has been such a hot-topic issue in the United States recently. As I listened to them, I realized I had to forget what I knew about Muslims from broad generalizations, just like I would not want somebody to generalize my beliefs based off of their view of the average Christian (Knowledge lv. 4).
Writing my Cultural Autobiography helped me to learn the benefits of reflective, honest writing, and will help me to become a more transparent person in the future.
Artifact
Attached is the Cultural Autobiography I submitted for my class.
Attached is the Cultural Autobiography I submitted for my class.