Cultural Background Interview

Name

Institution

Cultural Background Interview

This interview was conducted in San Antonio, and the responded was a 54yrs old African American resident of the city.

The interviewee’s ancestor came to this place during second last decade of the 19th century. The originated for agricultural plantation along the Mississippi river. This origin points out that the ancestors of the interviewee were descendants of slave laboring in one of the farms round the Mississippi river.

The interviewee is not sure how his ancestor travelled to Texas either of foot or o horse drawn carts. During this ear the popular means of transport was streetcars or horse drawn cars. Public transport means were not very well established at this time. His ancestors must have had a hard time travelling from Mississippi to San Antonio.

The interviewee considers the African American heritage his culture. He first became aware of his culture while in grade two when he noted difference in the way his family conducted its activities and the way the other families around them conducted their duties.

While growing up the interviewee state that he noted different attitudes towards minority group from different people from his life towards the minority. Being part of the minority groups in the country he was surrounded by member from his cultural group but also interacted with different people from different groups. For instance, most of his teachers whites and had different attitudes towards the minority groups. He grew up in an era when the effect of the civil right movement were settling within the American society and state that some of the white teacher harbor animosity towards minority groups, while some held back from rebuking student from minority groups probably due to the notion that such an action would not be received well by the members of the minority groups. Washington never noted attitudes toward the minorities from his friend however he noted that most of the old people from the minority groups and sometimes his parent felt that the minorities were excluded from the mainstream American society. Some of the harbored so much bitterness towards what they termed as inequality. Washington adds that some of his friends also harbored this attitude. Another very influential person in his life, the pastor at the local church, a descendant of Spanish immigrants was very friendly never showing favoritism or distrust.

Washington was proud of his culture. His pride emanates from the fact that his culture gives him identity and a sense of belonging. His culture which is strong influence by Christian values provides the moral code by which he has lived his entire life.

Concerning what it means to be an American, Washington stated that being an American has always been a source of pride to him. It is part of his identity and makes him a product of a multicultural society. He stated that he always exhibits cultural diversity; it would be difficult for anyone to tell he is an African American had he not possessed the African skin.

It is with this zeal that Washington responded to the next question on American citizenship. He state that “it always feels good, and bestows him a sense of pride to be an American citizen. The country embraces diversity in a way that has never been seen before around the world.” Washington is certainly proud of the values America embrace following the civil right movement that made the America society to appreciate diversity and not use it as a way of segregating against people.

Washington described himself as an American of African American heritage and Christian background who embraces diversity relishes in it. He stated that he understand that the American society us diverse but never fails to share his believe with people from different groups. He also enjoys learning about other groups. According to his opinion multicultural education involve an education system that us responsive to the needs of the various cultural groups in the country. It makes learner aware of their culture and the culture of their peers. Therefore, multicultural education would have a classroom that has learners from different backgrounds and learning material that contain information on different backgrounds. Washington further noted that such education would provide different information to learners at different levels of study like introducing leaner bellow grade three to basic cultural difference, providing more information to learners in elementary level and provide more critical information to leaner in secondary and post secondary learning institutions.