McGautha Simoné McGauthaTony CastroLTC: 204025 January 2012My name is Simoné McGautha. I was born January 3, 1992 in Kansas City, MO to Adrienne McGautha and Isaac Anderson. My mother at the time was fourteen and in the 8th grade. My dad was sixteen and quickly abandoned us shortly after my birth. Raised in a home with just mother, grandmother, and myself I learned early on how to survive alone. Not having a father around really took a toll on me, but my mom and grandma did their very best at making sure I was taken care of. What stood out most to me when I was growing up was the fact that my mom and grandmother never just handed anything to me or told me the answer. They always made me work for it or find out by myself. They often read to me the bible verse, “Give a man a fish and he won't starve for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he won't starve for his entire life." I never understood it then, and when I got older it became clear to me that they were trying to teach me how to live without them because soon enough I will be on my own. My grandma has instilled in me from the time I was six years old that I would never be given anything because of the color of my skin and because I was a woman. She said that, that alone would automatically give two strikes against me and I would have to work extra hard at everything I wanted to accomplish. A lot might think that as blacks, we are doomed and nothing will ever happen for us because of that. I tend to think otherwise and I believe that my skin color is the most important part of my identity.1McGautha My social identity is very complex and I am okay with that. As a black person, I feel that we were taught self-pity in urban school districts. We were supposed to be okay with being apart of a poorer class and we were just to accept that. However, I remember a time I was talking to my grandma about what I wanted to be when I grew up and initially I said, a lawyer. After thinking about it, I changed my mind and she asked, why? I answered, “Because there are no black lawyers.” That was “my place” and I accepted that. As I got older, I was exposed to a lot more however and I realized there was a lot more out there than what I was being told. That is when I no longer accepted the roles I was told to follow because of my skin color. I began to venture out and do things “a black wasn’t supposed to do.”My sex was another huge issue for me. Growing up as an only child, I played with my cousins a lot of the time however they were all boys. Of course, I just wanted to have fun and I didn’t want to be alone but they didn’t see it that way. They made fun of me and never allowed me to play with them. This might seem insignificant to some, but as a child who doesn’t know any better, it hurts and it ultimately sets the mindset that I have today. Honestly, I just got out of my mind that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. It’s sad that I believed that all the way up until my junior year of high school, but it was all I knew. From the time I was eight years old, every holiday, I was in the kitchen with my aunts while the men and boys in my family were outside playing football and basketball. As a child, my feelings were hurt but as I got older, I accepted “my place.” The next social identity that is important to me is my religious affirmation. I was raised inthe church. Every Sunday and Wednesday I was at the church. I am a Baptist Christian and have been my entire life. My family is from what one would call “the Bible Belt.” I take religion very seriously and it is a very important part of my life. It’s something that I hate discussing because I 2McGautha stand so firmly behind my beliefs. One of best friends from middle school recently told me he was an atheist. It hurt me so much that I stopped talking to him for a couple of months. Of courseit wasn’t the right thing to do but being raised in the church and it being so important in my life, that was hard for me to understand. I began to blame myself for not dragging him to church with me. I am glad him and I made up now because like I said, he was my best friend for 6 years. Although we still don’t see eye-to-eye on the matter, I love him and he loves me. We have come to the conclusion that, that is the most important thing. These next two social identities kind of clash. My social class has stayed constant my entire life. My family and I have always been middle-class. We are just above the lower-middle class line. We have never struggled though; we have made enough to get by and then some. This has questioned my family’s decision on my proposed occupation. The first thing that comes out of their mouth when I tell them about me wanting to be a teacher, someone immediately says, “Teachers don’t make anything!” However, I am not in it for the money. I want to make differences in children’s lives and show them that education is the key to unlocking every door your heart desires. The more you know, the farther you will go. One of my favorite teachers told me that and I will never forget it. After reviewing some of the key moments and events in my life, I have realized that my family plays an extremely big part in my ways of thinking and doing. A lot of situations I am in when I have to come up with an answer or solution, I find myself thinking, “What would my grandma do?” or “How would my mom handle this?” My neighborhood was like a family to me. We all knew one another and I could trust on any of them to be there for me if for some reason my mom or grandma weren’t around. 3McGautha Overall, I feel that I lie on the minimization gap of the Bennett’s intercultural scale. I say this because I can be extremely closed minded about some things. I am aware that there are othercultures out there but I am so stuck in my own ways that it is hard for me some times to expand and try to understand others. When I was in Ghana for a month, I cried almost every night because it was so hard for me to open up and accept differences. Wow. Talk about extreme. I am glad I went because it helped me a ton! I want to leave this class learning …
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