PROJECT: AUTOBIOGRAPHY PROJECT

Everyone has some racial or ethnic heritage, though for some it may be less important than for others, both in how they see themselves, as well as in how others see them. This paper should focus on the racial/ethnic aspect of your identity. Throughout your paper, try to use as many specific examples and tell about as many specific experiences, memories and stories as you can. Choose stories from your life when you were most aware of race and ethnicity. Use details to try to describe your thoughts and experiences as thoroughly as possible. This should read like a regular autobiography, but with a focus on issues of race/ethnicity. Tell things that have happened to you. This paper should NOT simply read as a long essay that could be titled "What I Think about Race," or "Current Racial Issues That Interest Me Most." Tell a story about something that has happened to you, and then you may add something that you learned from it. Focus on things like change, stability, turning points, influences, stories, people, feelings, conflict, resolution, and recurring themes.

Guiding Questions

Remember to mention specific events that you remember as being significant to you in regards to your race or ethnicity. What I am looking for is the shifts, progression, or other development of your racial/ethnic consciousness. Be specific. Again, remember to work chronologically, from the first time you remember being aware of your or someone else's race/ethnicity to the present.
(For any questions with a blank, fill in the blank when reading it with the term you use to identify your race/ethnicity, whichever you identify with more.)

• What are some of your first memories of recognizing racial/ethnic differences and your place in a racial/ethnic group?

• To any extent that you can, write about "__-ness" without writing about any other groups who are not _.

• Broadly speaking, what does it mean to be ___?

• If you were not being asked to discuss your race or ethnicity, could you tell your life story without mentioning race or ethnicity?

• Is your racial/ethnic identity one of the most important aspects of your personality? For example, if you had to describe yourself, is it one of the first things you would think to say?

• If you identify more in racial terms, what do you know about your ethnic heritage (i.e., what countries did your ancestors immigrate/or were forced here from, or when did your ancestors cross the border to the U.S./or have the border cross them)?

• What, if any, messages did your family give you about your race/ethnicity as you were growing up?

• Does/did your family have any specific traditions related to your racial/ethnic heritage? How do you think this compares with other families of your same race/ethnicity? How about with other families of other races/ethnicities?

• How, if at all, have your ideas about race/ethnicity changed through the years?

• What specific world events, personal incidents, relationships (with friends, classmates, etc.), environmental factors (the neighborhood you lived in, family situations, etc.), media images (books, toys, movies, television), etc., have had an effect on your ideas about race, ethnicity, and racism?

• What are some experiences that have made your race or ethnicity most visible to you?

• Throughout your life, have most of your friends and other people close to you been of your same racial/ethnic background? If so, why do

you think this was the case? If not, what do you think led you to cross racial/ethnic lines in creating relationships?

• Have you been subject to discrimination based on your race or ethnicity? If so, what type(s)?

• Has your racial/ethnic identity brought you any privileges or benefits? If so, what type(s)?

• How do you think your racial/identity will be likely to affect your future, if at all?

How do you think demographic changes that are currently underway will affect your experiences and attitudes relating to race, ethnicity, and racism?

• Do you think racism is becoming more of a problem, less of a problem, or not changing much in the U.S.? If you think it is a problem, what do you think the best solution(s) is/are?

Autobiography Project Grading Criteria: Since you are writing about your life, you will not be graded so much on the substance of your autobiography as you will on whether you followed the directions for the assignment. So be sure to do these things:

1) Submit your paper on time, and meet the formatting requirements for the paper. The length of your autobiography paper should be about 4-6 pages and double-spaced. Please follow conventional formatting: 10 to 12-point font, 1" margins, and essay-format. Papers are due by 11:55pm, June 15th. Late papers will receive 5 points off each late day.

2) Proofread your paper flawlessly, and write a grammatically correct paper.

3) Focus on stories and experiences, not opinions.

4) Show me that you gave this some careful thought, in the context of topics we discuss in this class.

5) Projects should be typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and a 12-pt. font. The total length of each paper should be 4-6 pages and

no more than eight pages. No grade will be given for those projects submitted after the due date.