My neighborhood has changed slightly a few times growing up. As a little kid, I grew up in the grimiest part of Oakland, the 60’s and 70’s. The crime there was rampant all over with carjacking’s, robberies, murders and shootings. During the early 90’s, Oakland’s crime rate was at an all-time high. Everyone living there had to be alert and look over their shoulder to make sure they did not become an innocent bystander. At the time my family did not have very many resources, we couldn’t afford to move to a better area. The neighborhood was predominately black and Latino with most of the businesses owned by Korean or Vietnamese Americans. As an influence, it did not affect me majorly except language habits. It did make me more aware and cautious of my area and what to avoid. As a quiet child, I did not really associate with any of the kids with more troubled upbringing. Most of my family also grew up in the poor area of Oakland but were able to break away from the cycle of drugs, violence and prison that plagued our family to succeed and provide for me and the others kids of my generation. Towards the middle to late 90’s the crime rate calmed down and my family were able to move to a quieter, but still poor area of Oakland called the 20’s or “Dubs”. The area was predominately black with some Italians, Latinos, and Asian Americans. As the decade came to a close, most of the blacks in area were selling their property and moving to Antioch, Stockton and Vallejo. More Asians and Latino’s moved into the properties, but the crime rate in Oakland was yet again rising and reached an all-time high in 2006 at 150 murders. Still despite the crime and poverty, I did not let that stop me and never will. I am who I am despite the neighborhood I live in.
This post is insightful and very revealing of the poster's environment and the poster's sense of himself. The poster identifies very specific issues that he has observed in the neighborhoods that he was raised in and implies that the quality of life in these communities can affect the behaviors and choices of people who live there. References to the "cycles of violence" and "crime rates" show the poster's intellectualization of these realities in his community rather than an internalization. Yet, the poster is also able to identify specific instances of violence ("carjackings, robberies, murder and shootings") that have been close enough to his life that they have left some kind of a direct impression that someone not living in these areas would not be familiar with. Despite recognizing these influences, the poster reveals an commitment not to be defined by what he has seen and where he has lived, but to instead see himself as a product of his own personal vision. "I am who I am despite the neighborhood I live in," is a brave statement for any person to make, whether they are raised in an environment of crime and poverty or raised in an environment of wealth and opportunity. This statement opens the one who says it to the possibility of change and the opportunity to define their own destiny.
ReplyDelete-Chris Carmichael