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For this project I focused on the roles of families in different ethnicities, specifically mother and fathers and their roles as parents. This differs drastically for different ethnicities and using the books that we read in class, I focused on Hispanic families and African American families. I highlighted some of the most important and blatant issues that parents in these situations face. The biggest challenge was how to tie together the different ethnicity’s struggles with parenthood and outside factors to show the issues that minority families often deal with. They often deal with some of the same issues but the different ones they experience can sometimes often be drastically different and hard to compare. Along with that, it was difficult to figure out how to explain the issues experienced by these families when I have no way of truly understanding how they experience it or feel it. The biggest payoff that I’ve gotten from writing this paper is understanding the struggles that all parents have to deal with, does not matter what ethnicity they are, but most commonly for those of minorities. There is such strong judgement and pressure to be a perfect parent and in reality, it is almost impossible for those goals to be met. We all judge on the outside view that we have on a situation but really there are so many aspects that go into how a parent raises their child and what they are able to do to provide for them. That is why so many families are extended, because it takes a village to raise a child. Reading over the course goals, I achieved developing ideas through informal writing, revision and formal essays because that is the entire process that lead to this paper being in existent. We started the paper with just basic ideas and evidence which was then further put together and judged and adjusted by classmates, before being put together in a full essay. I did not touch base much on law in this paper, but I was able to practice context specific interpretation of literature and cultural texts. I did not analyze visual texts, but I did take advantage and used written texts to help with this paper. Throughout the entire class, we were able to have class discussions based on ideas and theories, especially based on this topic that we used to write our paper. We used this discussion to better put our papers together and to pick the best evidence to support the paper that we each attempted to write.

In this day and age, there are ideal’s and expectations for every single aspect of people’s lives, no matter where they are from or what they look like. There is some sort of requirement put upon them that they have to some how fulfill or they are looked down at. One of these big aspects are families. What type of family they have, how many kids they have, have they ever been divorced, etc. Specifically looking at the family types of African American individuals, Hispanic American individuals, and Caucasian American individuals, there is a significant difference in the expectations and what is accepted and considered ‘normal’. The expectations on how to be a perfect parent is also a concept that society has made a guideline for, but so few individuals meet those basic characteristics and are often outcast or judged for what almost everyone struggles with reaching. Mothers have incredibly high expectations on them to be the perfect mother who always knows what they are doing, but the reality is that they often struggle doing it ‘alone’ and find themselves relying on other around them to help, whether that be the husband/father or other family members. In some cases, there are no father figures in the family because they can often become scarce when the word family is mentioned, or they can be dragged away to go to jail or to attempt to make a better life for their family somewhere else.

Family types are split in a pretty logical manner with two main types. Two generation and three generation families. Two generation families are often what is referred to as a ‘nuclear’ family. There are both parents (generation 1) and then their children (generation 2) (Georgas, 2003). On the other hand, three generation families often have different varieties and structures but consist of grandparents (generation 1), parents and/or aunts and uncles (generation 2) and children or cousins (generation 3) (Georgas, 2003). Some specifications that three generation families have are whether it is patrilineal or matrilineal, what the stem family is, if there is any joint family, and if they have a fully extended family (Georgas, 2003). A patrilineal or matrilineal family just refers to the authoritative structure of the family, with patrilineal being that the father is in charge and before him, his father; while a matrilineal family means that the mother is the one in charge and before her, her mother (Georgas, 2003). A stem family often consists of the grandparents, the eldest married son, and their children all living together in one household. The reason for this set up often has to do with inheriting land, as splitting it up among children makes the property smaller and worth less but, in this case, it only gets passed down to one son (Georgas, 2003). A joint family is similar to the patrilineal family but when the grandfather dies, all of his married sons share the inheritance and work together to maintain it (Georgas, 2003). Finally, fully extended families often include 50 members, if not more. This included all grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, kids, and any other kin (Georgas, 2003).

More commonly found in Caucasian families, is the nuclear family that just consists of the parents and the children (Sutherland, 2014). There is less reliance on other family members when it comes to care and taking care of the children, which is a big benefit and use for having extended families or three generation family units. Hispanic and black families can often be found utilizing extended family members to watch and take care of their children when the time comes (Sutherland, 2014). This is why the extended family type is the next most common, because so many ethnicities and cultures utilize this family type in order to best raise their family and most efficiently help the family financially. Another common family grouping that can be found is single mother and one or more children (Sutherland, 2014). This type of family can honestly be found in almost any ethnicity but is extremely common in African American mothers. Black women have a much higher likelihood of becoming teenage mothers who then stay single or have marriage instability (Washington, 2010). More specifically, around 72% of black children are born to unmarried mothers which compared to the 42% for the average U.S. population, is a significantly big number of kids (Washington, 2010). In addition to this, it is incredibly likely that the family will have the stigma and judgement attached to them where they are regarded as poor, fatherless, dependent on government assistance, and involved in producing a multitude of kids out of marriage (Thomas, 2007). Looking at the statistics above, it is no wonder that most people view African American families in the viewpoint that was mentioned above. With high rates of single mother families, which means no father is around or they are but not quite acting like a fatherly figure, some families do end up requiring some sort of government assistance and can often be found on the lower part of the income scale.

In the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, we see multiple examples of different types of families found in both the black community and the white community. We have Starr’s family that consists of her biological mom and dad, her younger brother, and her older half-brother. Her half-brother was born to her father and another woman who he slept with while married to Starr’s mom. A big part of the book centers around the idea that black individuals need to be weary of police officers, so they often have to give them the ‘other talk’ about what to do when a cop stops you (Thomas, 17). This is an incredibly worrisome conversation to think about let alone actually having to give to your children. A talk that gets passed down from parent to child with every generation, something that has become a social norm among this community. A result of that type of situation, one of Starr’s best friends from her younger years, dies in a police shooting and the whole community has to deal with the reality that that situation brings. Most specifically, ­­­Khalil’s mother who has been judged by almost everyone to not be good mother. While she gave birth to him, she was never there for him as a true motherly figure because of her addiction to drugs, but she was still his mother. This was completely against Starr’s opinion though as she believed it was wrong that she got to all of the sudden feel the sadness and dread after he died since she was never there for him (Thomas, 63). Since his mother did not fulfill the ‘expected’ role of a mother, she is completely dismissed from being allowed to feel any sadness over his death. In contrast, on the other side of the family, Starr’s father struggled with being in his family as a father, especially since he was a part of a gang and was sent to jail for a brief period of time when Starr was little. He stated that it was the hardest three years of his life because he was stuck in prison, like his father, missing out on his baby’s life (Thomas, 116). As mentioned above, this fits into the view that black families are often fatherless, whether it be because the father does not want to be within the family or because they are physically pulled from it like to be put in jail.

In addition to that book, Drown by Junot Diaz, goes over multiple different families with some variety in family structure. The two main types that are most often mentioned is the one family with both parents involved yet the father seems to be in a relationship with another individual, with the other type being both parents technically in the family, the father is absent or off doing something else. In this case, the father seemed to be off in another country, specifically the U.S., trying to make a living for himself and eventually to get his whole family there with him (Diaz, 69). This puts a big strain on the family as it mostly all relies on the mother to keep the house and to also take care of the children. A solution to this is often having other family members help out with caretaking, especially when the parent just needs help or some time off. In some of the short stories mentioned in this book, the children were sent of to spend some time with their aunt or uncle for anywhere between a week to almost more than a month (Diaz, 3-4 and 74). In addition to that, many Hispanic families involves grandparents into their household which is shown when the mother of the particular family often left her kids with their grandfather in order to go work (Diaz, 72).

Parents and families are constantly judged in their ability to be the best mothers and fathers that they can be, but often they find themselves in situations where they are completely incapable of reaching that goal. Sometimes mothers are prevented from being there for their kids as much as they can be because of things such as addiction, stress, and other outside influences. This seems to be a much bigger rate in African American and Hispanic families in comparison to almost any other ethnicity, which often has to do with access to resources and availability of various things in life. Fathers, especially Hispanic and African American fathers, struggle with being there for their family because of things like jail and trying to get a better situation for their family. All around, there are so many expectations that are set out for parents, which are often unattainable, and when they do not meet them, which it seems that minority parents often do not, they get judged and labeled as being bad parents when in reality, they are doing anything that they possibly can.

Reference:

Diaz, Junot (1996). Drown. Riverhead Books.

Georgas, J. (2003). Family: Variations and Changes Across Cultures. International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Sutherland, A. (2014). Family Structure and Children’s Health. Institute for Family Studies.

Thomas, A. (2017). The Hate U Give. HarperCollins

Thomas, P., Krampe, E., Newton, R. (2007). Father Presence, Family Structure, and Feelings of Closeness to the Father Among Adult African American Children. Journal of Black Studies.

Washington, J. (2010). Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate. Boston.com.

Hetty’s confession in Adam Bede fully showed her understanding and sanity when it came to her decision of infanticide. She might have regretted it and not fully understood the implications coming from it, but she knew when she put the baby down in the ‘little grave,’ that it most likely was not going to make it through the night. She attempted to convince herself that someone would come get it, but she understood the child would likely die. Unlike the situation in the M’Naughten case, Hetty obviously had full understanding and capability to realize how wrong and immoral her actions were. She knew what she did was wrong, as she ‘confessed’ to Dinah and God, which goes to show she is in a right state of mind.

While she technically could have pleaded not guilty because of insanity, the reality of it is that she was completely conscious of the decisions she was making. This is sort of where the idea of defendants being allowed to speak in the court room comes in. If Hetty was allowed to speak for herself, there would have been absolutely no chance of pleading not guilty, because the full confession was there and there was no sign of Hetty not understanding the situation and what she had done. She had premeditated the infanticide which goes to show control of decisions and that this was not the result of a rash and insane moment.

If this case took place after the M’Naughten case, Hetty would have been more likely to have gotten not guilty because of insanity. This could come from the want to commit suicide after or the immense regret that she felt as soon as she fully comprehended what had happened along with her ability to hear the baby crying even though she was a long ways away from the woods where she left it. They could have argued that Hetty was not in the right state of mind and if she had been, this whole situation would never have come to pass.

All in all, even with the possibility of Hetty’s case coming after the M’Naughten case, it is highly unlikely that she would have been able to get the insanity plea because she was conscious of her planning before hand and while she was doing it. She knew the possibility of the baby dying yet still proceeded anyway.

The main chunk of what happened in THUG, in the 8 chapters that we read was that Starr’s old friend Khalil was shot by a cop in what should have been a normal license and registration check. But based on the sections we read in the CRT and from what has been going on in reality for the past decade, this type of thing seems like it is more based on a real event and that it was entirely caused by him being black.

Similar to a lot of other cases just like this one, it is trying to be ‘covered up’ by using the fact that Khalil had gotten involved in drug dealing, ignoring the fact that he was trying to get out and straighten up, and said that the cop felt that he was a danger and needed to protect himself from the man with no weapon on him.

Also relating to both books, Starr feels frightened to talk about the event because she is going to judged and claimed to be lying. This is an issue that is discussed in CRT (pg. 33) where the victims are urged to talk about the issue at hand, but a lot of the time, they are too scared to speak out because of prior examples of people speaking out and then being shut down completely (sometimes going missing or finding themselves in the same situation).

It is also evident, that this ‘misunderstanding’ was pretty discriminatory, especially since the support group that goes to Khalil’s funeral, believes that this situation is just like many that have happened before it. That race is a leading factor is officer shooting incidents, especially since the whole situation with Khalil escalated unnecessarily because of the cops seeming discomfort with his color. If it had been a white individual, the questions Khalil was asking and his reluctance to comply would have been more than fine, and not even questioned.

It’s hard to say how someone would take a poem, especially one that has such a controversial topic as this one does. I think it would have been more effective in the understanding of the situation of slavery but not so much an instrument of abolition. This poem specifically follows a woman’s journey in a slave life, and the steps that she took that put her in the dangerous position that she was in. This rebellion and showing of strength could have been a good example of ‘sticking it to the man.’ But it was also violent in a controversial way. It showed a good example at how hard choices had to be in situations like this, but it also hides or chooses not to share some important factors that are included in events like this.
This could also be dangerous because in a way it supported Justice Taney’s statement in the sense that it showed how violent and revengeful an individual could be able how it might be dangerous for the whites after all that they’ve done (not siding with the whites on this, just saying it slightly helps the argument). Other than that, it does not seem to have much support for the statement since all the rights that were mentioned are rights that every person deserved to hang, no matter their background.

1. Why insert a story of romantic love in stanzas IX-XII? Think about how it brings the action to a crisis as well as the way it supplements the speaker’s reflections in stanzas IV-VIII.
   By adding a romantic story to this, it adds a whole other aspect to the story/poem. What seems to be just a poem that tells the story of a runaway slave has a lot more background information and outside stories than what is expected. It also gives a reason for the actions that take place in the poem. It also adds a drastic comparison to the stanza section before it, where the narrator essentially questions the reason for their life in a darker manner. It was much lighter and brighter in the next section about the romantic love.
2. Stanzas IV-V depict two punishments How does stanza IV recall stanza I? What does she mean when she says “it was too merciful to let me weep pure tears and die” (ll. 104-05)?
   Stanza IV and I are similar in the fact that the both elude to an ‘exiled’ individual who is in a situation that they are not familiar with and that they are not accepted in. It also refers to God being happy with a decision that he made in the case of creation or relocation. By this line, “it was too merciful to let me weep pure tears and die” the narrator is expressing that those who capture her, those who are supposed to be like the exiled who came before her, are devious and uncaring about her. Almost as if she isn’t a real person.
3. As the speaker recounts her story, she alludes to its ending—“until all ended for the best” (st. 16)—before she describes the central event. How does she interpret the child’s will to live?
   To me, it seemed like the narrator thought she was doing the child a favor by killing it, because of the horrible world that exists around them. She believed that the best alternative for the child would to stop existing because it would not be treated well by anyone else. According to her, the child wanted to live but that could entirely be because it did not understand what she understood.
4. What reasons or explanations does she provide for her repeated effort to overcome his struggles? Which ones does she deny?
   She repeatedly overcame his struggling because he did not fit in with her perceived view of her world. He would not have fit in with him, but instead with her ‘master.’ He would never be able to relate to her and her culture, but also would never fit into the white world.
5. Stanzas XXVIII and XXIX arguably resolve the infanticide story and see the speaker return to the present, to a new dawn from which “the pilgrim-ghosts” retreat, but their “hunter sons” appear and a new struggle emerges. What forms of defiance do you see in stanzas XXX-XXXIII?
   While they are fighting to get custody of her, she fights in everyway possible, especially referencing to herself as other animals in their natural habitat. She also fights back by telling them that she took down one of their own in revenge of some sort. She also references that all slaves who live after her will rise up against all those who have kept them captive.
6. What do you make of the speaker’s contrast of the slave’s wounds do Christ’s?
   It’s essentially a reference that she believes the mistake they are making is the same mistake that they made in killing Christ. A person who believes in good and only plans to do good or just live their life normally. She also uses this in reference to the beginning where she makes herself equivolant to those who came to America first, and how drastically they have changed over the years.
7. Why does the speaker, who has come to the shore to “curse this land” (l.20), leave “white men” “curse-free” (st. XXXVI)?
   I believe that she said this because she understands why they are doing what they are doing, and for those who came before them, she will not blame them for their wrong doings. Their ancestors came to this land before them and at the time, they were only doing what they needed to do to survive.

The two sections out of Drown that I read were ‘Aguantado’ and ‘Boyfriend’ which were recounted by the narrator Yunior.

The first section (pg. 69-88), ‘Aguantado’ was a section that showed Yunior’s life and how it was to grow up with out a dad. Like many families deal with, Yunior’s father Ramon moved to America to attempt to find a better life for his family. I have a friend from Jamaica who was in a very similar situation where his dad came to America to work and have a place for his kids to come to so that they could attend college in America. Big sections about this talked about the reliance on family members to also help in taking care of children, especially in situations where a parent is missing or absent.

In the second section (pg. 111-117), ‘Boyfriend’ was about one of Yunior’s neighbors who is going through a break up with her break up. This happens to be a interracial relationship which brings its own issues of racism and judgement. A lot of these issues can be related or tied back to potential stereotypical racial issues.

I ended up reading the whole book because I found it to be interesting, and when reading about assimilation, I no where thought that Yunior or any of the people that he talked about, were trying to change to fit into another culture or group. They were very proud of who they were and what culture they have and live in. Especially Yunior, who even though his father lived in America and his family members and friends are all slightly different culturally and economically, still believed that in who he was and kept with who he wanted to be. He did not force himself to change in anyway to better fit in with other individuals.