African American
Who I’m I?
Octavia Lindsay
University Of Phoenix
Cultural Diversity
9/28/2014

Two social categories that I can identify with is gender and racial. Women have definitely experienced discrimination throughout history. There was a time when women were only able to stay at home and cook, clean and take care of the children. Throughout history women were considered the property of their husband once they were married. They had to follow his rules. If a women wanted to divorce her husband in the 1800s she may do so but she would also have to give up her children also. So back in the 1800s there where not a lot of women getting divorced because of the fear of losing her children. In the 1900s is when women where finally allowed to work. Women were not allowed to do the same type of work as men. The usually work in textile mills or garment shops. People discriminated against women for working because they believed women could not handle the same jobs as men did. They also believe that women should not be in any supervisor position. Women also do not get paid the same amount as men. In 1960s is when they finally passed a law stating that women get paid the same amount as a man. This law is called the Equal Pay Act. Women also face discrimination when it came to voting. Women were not allowed to vote. It was a hard and grueling process but finally women were allowed the chance to vote. There has been a lot of discrimination in history against women but today plenty of things have change. There are women in almost every occupation that men work in. Women are able to control their own bodies. What I mean by that is women are able to get abortions or take birth control if they are not ready to have children. Women are raising children and working at the same time and sometimes even pursing higher education. So things have definitely change throughout history.
My background is African American. African American were brought to the United States in the 1600s by explorer. African Americans were slaves. They had to do really hard work and were alienated from their wife, children and family. As time went on there were several slave protests by African American people these protests usually resulted in hanging of the people that were a part of the protest. In 1808 it was no longer legal to bring slaves from Africa to the United States. In 1863 all the slaves were free. This is known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Things for African Americans only got harder. African Americans were still not considered citizens nor could they vote. Discrimination against African Americans were at an all-time high. African Americans are finally considered as citizens but there is still discrimination going on. African Americans are not allowed to attend the same school as white people. My great grandfather told me the story about when he was growing up. He told me how he went to an all-black school because African Americans were not allowed to go to a school where white people attended. This really made me sad knowing that my great grandfather grew up in a time where the classrooms were not diverse. In 1954 people finally declared that segregation in classrooms are unconstitutional. In the 1950s and 60s there were a lot of African Americans standing up for what they believed in. African Americans like Malcom X and Martin Luther King. African Americans have come a long