Missing A Part of You

In the essay, "Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Woman Educators" by Sunny-Marie Birney, you understand the importance of parents sharing and reflecting their heritage on their children. The essay discusses Birney's dependency on her teachers for understanding of her African descent. She was adopted at the age of 2 by Euro-American people who could not tell her much about the culture because they weren't black. An exert states, "Similar to the unknown author of the negro spiritual Motherless Child, I too found myself "a long way from home. My adopted parents, two people of Euro-American descent, were wonderful people, but I always felt that a piece of me was missing." From this exert, Birney expressed that she loved her parents and they were great but growing up she always felt that there was a part of her missing. Why should adopting parents be of similar ethnicity of the child? Growing up and watching movies such as Raising Isaiah, I didn't understand the importance of adopting a child how had the same race as the parents. I felt that it was not a vital role in parenting. Many of the movies I watched I assumed that the parents or the adoption agencies were just prejudice and did not understand that parenting was beyond the color of someone's skin tone. But now things seem to shine in a new light. I can understand how important it is to understand where you have come from to understand where you are going. Being raised in a African-American household I have gotten the chance to experience culture traditions and festivities. This things have helped mold me into the woman I am today and will definitely have an affect on the woman and mother I will be in the future. When I do have the chance to interact with other African-American students and I find out that they don't understand the traditions and festivities I become completely shocked. I also find myself using sayings as "oh your not black" to make fun of them in a joking way. I never realized how much I characterize someones's ethnicity on their behaviors but I do. I understand that the behaviors we perform and understand reflects who we are as a people. Growing up as a child and not getting the chance to experience this must have a big toll of the life of the child. It must make them feel lost or as Birney stated, "a piece of them is missing". So now when it comes to understanding the importance of being raise in a home where similar culture beliefs and traditions are shared. As the saying goes, "In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you came from".