What is Home?

     This is the first action project for the winter term of my class Who Am I? During this term, we've tackled many different topics covering race, ethnicity, and culture. For example, we watched the movie Yellow Rose, in which, after her mother's deportation, Rose sets out to achieve her dream of becoming a country movie star. The way the movie showcased how culture and ethnicity impact the way we move about the world and what we're expected to be was very interesting. We also visited the Field Museum, where we learned about Native culture and how deep their lineage lies in Chicago, which was very nice to see. Native Americans rarely receive representation in media, so having a major museum giving them the spotlight was very nice.

    For our action project, we had to record a 10 to 12-minute podcast asking a family member their thoughts on race, ethnicity, and culture. I chose to interview my mother, as I wanted to know her experiences growing up with my grandmother. My grandmother talks a lot about her time in the South, so I wanted to know if any of those experiences or traditions were passed down to her. I also wanted to know her experiences with race, and how her race shaped her life. These are the questions I asked in the interview.

  • How important is your race to you?

  • Have any of your parents' traditions passed onto you? If so, what are they? If not, is there a reason they haven’t?

  • Has there ever been a point in your life where your race played an obvious/key role in how you were treated?

  • Do you think your life would be different if you were a different race? If your parents were a different race?

  • Was there ever a point in your upbringing where you felt uncomfortable with your race? Is there a reason?



Overall, I think doing this podcast was very nice. Getting to talk to my mom about her thoughts on race and our culture made me understand it better. Hearing her talk about what home and culture meant to her showed me just how important culture is. It's the one thing we can all come back to, that connects us regardless of distance. I think this was a very nice project, and I'm glad I got to talk to someone about this. 

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