Cultural Biography

Cultural Biography
Nasra Mirreh
Georgia State University

Nasra Mirreh

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I come from a country where everybody is pretty much the same and
theres not much diversity. Government controlled media was the only
access to other cultures, so I have not had much experience with diversity
before coming to the United States. I was born and raised in Somalia, located
in the Horn of Africa next to the Indian Ocean. It has an estimated population
of about 9 to 10 million people with about 60 percent being nomadic and the
remainder agriculturists and city dwellers, according to the United Nations
World Health Organization report. In the past 26 years, this beautiful country
has descended into chaos and anarchy without a functioning government in
place to maintain civil order and provide the desperately needed public
services of its citizens. The most vulnerable members of this society are the
women, children, elderly and those with disabilities.
Positionality/Multiple Identities
According to the readings Lum, D. (2011) all people belong to a social
location that is defined by their gender, class, race, sexuality, ethnicity and
religion; basically, positionality is where one fits in society. In a social
context, I am a black woman, a mother of three who came as a refugee to
the United States from Somalia before becoming a U.S. citizen in 2000. In
Somalia, girls are excluded from formal education. For many of us in the
West, the idea of not being able to attend school because of ones gender is
inconceivable. If youre a girl in a third world country, you are less likely to be
educated, however, your brother may be. For that reason, I am privileged in
the eyes of my community here in America; I am a member of the lower
middle class or the working poor. In the U.S., race is another social location
position that can affect your life chances of getting higher education and
gainful employment. For instance, Blacks and Hispanics have less wealth
than whites and have fewer education opportunities. Although the concepts
of race are socially constructed, its impact on society can be seen from the
media to local shopping centers. Even the President of the United States,
Barack H. Obama, is subjected to racial biases. Some believe that he was not
born in the United States, making him ineligible for the presidency. In the
history of the presidency of the United States, this issue of birtherism never
has been applied to other white presidents before him.
Dilemmas of Americanization
People come to the United States for different reasons, but my experience
coming as a refugee, is the best way to come to the United States. Refugees
are invited to be a part of the American society, meaning upon arrival,
refugees can obtain work, go to school with in-state tuition, and receive
public benefits. I also believe the idea that immigrants come to this country
for numerous reasons such as religious freedom, to escape poverty, escape
social controls like oppression/injustice and to find better lives for their
families. I never imagined coming to America; this was a big moment for me.
However, after acquiring the English language, I was exposed to some

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shocking realities of American culture and history. Gradually, I adapted to all

things that American culture offers and find myself in a dilemma as to how to
protect my cultural values in my assimilation process. I came to the
realization that American culture in all its forms is exported globally and
people around the world are adopting through the media, films and even
become more widespread since the invention of the Internet. Google,
Facebook, and Twitter are spreading the Americanization process rapidly; my
family members who dont have running water and electricity in Somalia are
using WhatsApp and are on Facebook.
Family Culture
The family is a social intuition, which includes father, mother and their
children as well as the distant relatives who have a significant role in my
family cultural values. I come from a society where traditional oral history is
important. Due to high illiteracy rate and part of my social work education
that I had before, I decided to become a social worker. Real life experiences
and traditional values contributed to my understanding of cultural selfawareness. For example, the term social construction changes; eating pork is
not socially acceptable in some parts of the world and eating with your
hands may not be acceptable in some areas of the world.
My cultural understandings of American culture white communities
values nuclear family more than kinship family, whereas an African American
community values both. Both husband and wife work outside of the home to
earn money. However, women stay home to raise children. In my familys
cultural tradition mothers must stay home, so the child can learn family
traditions and values, which will be handed over from one generation to the
next. Although, I have a husband with a job, I have to work outside of the
home to support my family. As a working mother, I deal with the stigma that
many African American women have to deal with such as black women to be
breadwinners; where white stay-at home mothers are assumed to be married
which is based on inequalities in African-American history. According to Lum
(2011) The way parents feel about themselves is transmitted to children as
they gain a sense of self-worth and their identity (p.143)
Cultural Awareness of other Inventory
Everyone is a product of his own cultural back ground such as religion,
family, ethnicity, age. Cultural inventory allows us and give us insights for
what we belief and value. Live experiences and traditional values contributed
to my understanding of cultural self-awareness. Through my life, the degree
of contact and involvement with other than people of color has been limited.
The vast majority of Somalis speaks Somali and practice Islam, when I was
child my impression of being a person of color was a positive.
Intersectionality (Internal and External)

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According to Lum(2011) Intersectionality is multiple intersections and

crossroads in our lives that are replete with multiple social group
memberships that are interconnected and interrelated(p.152). My
understanding of intersectionality is that one category such as gender, race
and socio-economic status, disability, and migration status cannot be
explained human behaviors and how humans live their life. Socio-economic
status, everyone does not get some opportunity and a child who lives in poor
neighborhood will be less likely to get educational support such as tutoring
and other after school program activities. Therefore, he/she will not be
benefiting from the system; the one who lives in the wealthy neighborhood
will get the best education and will have more resources. Gender is ascribed
status, which means its learn behavior and it has nothing to do with your
sexual organs, many cultures in the third world prefer to educate males than
females or in the United States you are more likely to pay less than your
male co-worker.

Conclusion
As an upcoming social worker, you must know who you are before
helping or may be hurting others; self-awareness, patience, and knowing
cultural competency are the main focus of social work practices. You should
treat your client as you would like to be treated, I remember one day in ESL
class room a fly came through an open window; the ESL teacher said to me
with a very loud voice look Nasras pet. I was humiliated.
Citing:
1. Adams, Bluemenfeld, et al. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (3rd
Ed) New York, NY: Routledge.
2. CIA: The World Factbook: Somalia. (2001). CIA World Fact Book, 1405.
3. Lum, D. (2011). Culturally Competent Practice. In D. Lum, Culturally
Competent Practice. Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning
4. Upvall, Michele J., Khadra Mohammed and Pamela D. Dodge.
Perspectives of Somali Bantu refugee women living with circumcision
in the United States: A focus group approach. International Journal of
Nursing Studies, Vol. 46, Issue 3, 3/09. Available at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748908001181

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