When Birdi first arrives at Nkrumah, the black power school, she is treated as an outsider. Her light skin makes kids think she is white and therefore out of place. As soon as Cole stands up and says that Birdie is her sister and as black as any of the other students, they accept her. Since Birdi is surrounded by
Sandra is a young girl with dark skin who is born to white parents and it is because of her skin colour. The first challenge she faces is the constant trial to assimilate into the white community and the constant rejection. When it was Sandra first time at school, the students were staring at her because she is different comparing to all of them, a girl name Elize was being hit because she told the others Sandra is not black, “I told Annie you weren’t black and she hit me”. Not only does the white community fail to recognise her circumstances and accept her as a part of the white community, they also create a hostile environment for her when she decides to marry a black man, Petrus. The hostility increases to such an extent that Sandra separates from her family and her relationship fragments with her father.
However it’s when others choose an identity for an individual or a group because of their circumstances that we get negative value identity or in equal identity. As people we all have an identity, the most simple of which is personal identity, this is your individual knowledge of who you are, but there are many more identities to consider. We construct our identities by what we do, where we go, people we interact with. A social identity is both an individual-a specific person and group identity referring to others whether different and the same. Identities relate to each and every person; however a lot of social identities are characterised by inequality.
Antonia is a young girl who deals with family issues and overwhelming responsibility in her one depressed parent family. On the other hand Jazz deals with trying to make her parents accept who she truly is and she also constantly rebels. While Jazz's Gothic look may be deceiving but she is completely different once you get to know her. Someone of her appearance would never be assumed to play the piano and save lives as a lifeguard. While the two girls have their own unique points they also have one thing in common and that is family issues.
She lost all her friends and has no one to talk to and share her feelings to, besides Heather. Heather is a girl who comes from Ohio and moved to Syracuse New York. She is a student from a different middle school and is unaware of the incident that just took place. Heather becomes her friend, but she soon backs off from being Melinda’s friend because she thinks that Melinda is the most depressed girl she ever met and she is not so cool so she goes and hangs out with the cool girls. Leaving, Melinda everyone turns there back on Melinda, but her lab partner who tells her and encourages her to speak up and not to remain silent.
As she suffers from finding a stable income and house for her family, Moody’s mother Toosweet encourages Moody to do well in school. However, her push to ensure Moody to succeed in school is only to prove to her husband Raymond’s family that her daughter is as smart as his family, not encourage Moody to attend college and fight for her rights. As a child, Moody was unaware of the oppression and inequality that African Americans had suffered. As she constantly questioned her concerns to her mother about the incidents that occurred, her mother always told her, “Just do your work like you don’t know anything” (Moody, 123). She realizes that her mother ignores the racial acts against her community and becomes alienated within her family as well as her community when she fights for her rights.
There are costs to the individual in belonging to a group It is a fundamental feature of humans to want to belong. We search for this sense of belonging through many ways including, sports, recreation, school, work and religion. Belonging to certain groups can require us to change or conform to ideas or rules that come at a consequence to us physically, morally and mentally. Our values beliefs and morals can all be challenged and we can at times adapt them so as to not lose that sense of belonging. At the simplest level, living in mainstream society exacts material costs.
I believe that different people react to the same type of stressful life events in different ways because that is the way they have learned to cope with difficult life events. I think when people go through a stressful situation our brain and body adapts itself to get accustom to what we are feeling. This situation is what leads people to cope with those feeling in different ways. It also depends on the culture and how people are raised. An
Stereotypes are not fact, they are just biased opinions people base on each other. The only way to really know how a person is to get to know them yourself and then form an opinion or thought about who they are. Relationships are powerful especially in the work place, that is why it is important to not let stereotypes affect your relationship with others. Our one-to-one connections with each other are the foundation for change. And building relationships with people from different cultures is key in building diverse communities that are powerful enough to achieve significant goals.
It is important to point out that Esme was a very independent person and behaved differently from other girls her age. She was outgoing and adventurous and she never conformed to the way society expected young girls at her age to act. These expectations included being obedient and reserved. It was also expected that a girl would be married off at a young age, start a family, raise the children, and work around the house. They were not encouraged to continue their education.