Cultural identity is very important to me.

I am an African American whose mother was born in this country, but whose parents & siblings were born in the Caribbean. My father was adopted as a toddler and was raised in Michigan. Consequently, I have no Southern United States roots that I know of. I was raised in a working class African American family in the resort city of Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s to the mid 1960s. Unlike this present time, there were very few if any Latinos in that city, and only a small number of Asians. During the 1950s and 1960s when I lived in the city, the racial population was about two thirds White and about one third Black. However, residential neighborhoods were largely segregated by race, and economic class within racial groups. Because public schools up to junior high school {age 11 or so] were based on neighborhood, these schools were also racially segregated. There was only two public junior high schools in the city, and only one public high school. Because a number of White students attended a Catholic junoir & senior high school, or private junior or senior high school, the racial mix at the public junior and sentior high schools was about 50% Black and 50% White. I recall only two Asian students, and one person with a Spanish surname in my large high school graduting class of 900 students.

When I was growing up in Atlantic City, all of the social institutions for children such as YMCAs, YWCAs, and all the social groups that I was aware of such as Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts were segregated by race. The churches were also segregated. But the public library was integrated.

There is no doubt in my mind that the majority culture's negative valuation of Black people as a group and negative valuation of Black people as individuals greatly impacted the way that I viewed myself and my group. As a child, and as a young teen, I had an inferiority complex. I believed that historically and in that present time my racial group had made no significant accomplishments, and that White people as a group had accomplished more than any other group of people. It's not surprising that I believed this, since the educational curriculum and the mass media directly and indirectly taught that.

However, during my childhood and teen years there were mitigating factors that helped me develop and helped reinforce positive feelings of self-esteem. Little things can also make a difference about how a person in an "out group" thinks about her or himself. I am a twin. As a young child, I can remember my mother taking my sister and me to a "Mother of Twins" meeting. My recollection was that we were the only Black people at that meeting, and I don't recall us going back a second time. Yet, I credit that meeting with inculcating in me the sense that being a twin was something positive. Twins are special. I am a twin. So therefore I am special.

Also, my grandfather was the head deacon in our church, and the president of a prominent Black religious organization in our county. As part of his responsibilities, my grandfather did a great deal of public speaking throughout our city and county. He would often take me and some other grandchildren with him to these events, and introduce us to those in attendance. Though I wasn't conscious of it at those times, the positive attention that my grandfather received, helped me to think more positively about myself.

As I mentioned previously, my junior high school, and high school were racially integrated. One of the pluses for me of this integrated learning experience was that I realized that academically I did better than many of my White classmates. This direct experience helped to raise my self-esteem and helped me refute the myth of White superiority. Yet, it wasn't until my college and young adult years that the myth of White group superiority was dismantled. Learning about African traditional cultures and the folk cultures of other people of color was an important part of that journey.

I credit my work as an adult in adoption, and particularly in transracial adoption {the adoption of a child of one race by an adult or adults of another race} for reinforcing the principle that I have that people are people are people but that, especially in a society that is hostile to one's group, positive group esteem is very important to the development of a healthy, positive sense of self.

I'm glad that I found Mudcat. Among other things, this forum provides opportunities for me to "meet" individuals whose lifestyles may be very different than mine, but whose values, interests, and concerns are often quite similar. Most of the time, Mudcat gives me hope that at some point-though maybe not in my lifetime- racial identity will be nothing more than a descriptor, and racial identity will have neither positive nor negative valuation.

I hope and I work for such a time as that.