Between two worlds it started for me in high school when become a Black man and gaining the American Dream became the most important things in life. I would see the violence on black men in the news and social media that was happening in the world and it bothered me greatly. The deaths of so many black men because we are seen as a threat this is my reality in a world of such indifference and discrimination. It’s a struggle to be a black man in a society where I am a targeted and seen as an aggressive threat and labeled as a thug. Black men are seen as criminals and incapable of being intelligent. This has been for centuries where black men are raised from poverty and are labeled from birth that they will become a burden on the society instead of an asset. Many black men grow up in poverty and struggle to get an education and gainful employment . My personal goal is to try not to become the stereotype of all black men. I push myself to do better and gain the knowledge to be more productive and have wealth for my future in this society.
Which leads me to the struggle of the black man also not being able to obtain the American dream. My dream is to one day own my own business. I also want to own a home and car. I want to build my credit to show that I am responsible with my financials. Many Black American haven’t learned about the proper way to manage there finances until they are much older or have ruined the credit before they even know what is good credit. I want to become financially stable at a much younger age this will put me in a better place for my future. These are the obstacles that are placed in front of me. When coming from a family that is low income it’s harder to save money. My goal is to overcome the percentage of black men that end up in jail and uneducated. My goal is to become a black business owner with the American dream. I have to overcome all the odds in the world that has stereotyped me from birth. I am a black man of greatness which is who I am and will always be.
Asa: You have done more of a SUMMARY of the conflict you feel as a black man and being stereotyped and held back because of what the world assumes you to be. Instead you need to write a NARRATIVE. You need a story — a story of yourself being caught between two different identities and show me details and description of an event in your life showing that you live in two different worlds.
Look at what Olivarez does when he shows us that he didn’t fit in with in his American world and yet when he went to Mexico, he didn’t feel he was Mexican either. He also shows us his conflict between being Mexican-American and how the American world sees him. He shows how he began to fit in when he discovered the world of slam poetry and joining his school’s poetry club. You should be reading Amy Tan now. Look how she describes being in the family world where she speaks a mixture of Chinese and English and then when she speaks to a poetry reading audience in perfect Standard English. She is navigating between TWO different worlds. And she tells a story of herself, drawing the reader in with engaging details and descriptionf of her mother speaking in CHinese to show her familiar Chinese world.
Asa:
I copy here a part from the Assignment for Unit One essay. YOu can use this to think about your writing on Two Different Worlds as you go forward towards working on the rough draft for Unit One Essay on Educational Journal (See the Assignments page).
Do you feel a conflict between two parts of your identity? Have you been typecast in a certain profile, putting pressure on you to conform to what others expect of you? Then, are you battling with another part of yourself that seeks to be free to reach the dreams that you keep hidden in your heart, that only you can see in yourself? What actions have you taken to address the conflict? Or, how have you learned to live with it?
Be sure to name for your reader exactly what the two worlds or two identities are.