Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group

1
Member

Week 1: Assignment

Katherine Wilson

HCA/210

Bobbie-Ann Murphy, MHA, MSN/ED, RN

December 17, 2010

 Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group
1
Member

Date: June 3rd 1920- First entry: My name is Latisha A. Smith I am sixteen years old and I
live in the state of Kentucky. I have three bothers and I live with my mother and father and my
grandmother. I have decided to start a journal to document my journey as a teenager and the
resistance I am facing with my education and my identity of being an African American.

All my life as far as I can remember I knew that there was something special or different about
me. Sometimes it feels like I am trapped into different worlds. My first world is my home which
I am very comfortable in my brothers is always around and my grandmother and mother are
always tending to the household duties. My dad work a lot of hours and is not at home much he
work for the local railroad company. I really love my home we don’t have a lot of fancy thing
like television but we have two radios and my grandmother clean houses sometimes so she is
able to bring home a newspaper. Sometime my grandmother will allow me to go to work with
her because she is old and need help carrying bags. Most of the time we have to walk to her jobs
which is a very long trip because we are not allowed to ride the local bus. Years ago I ask my
father why we cannot ride the bus he just stated “because of the color of our skin”. I really didn’t
understand at first until I notice one a water hole that had a sign that read “whites only”.
Whenever I leave my home I enter my second world which is filled with tons of rules for black
people. Sometimes the rules can get very complicated and confusing in this world people are
separated by the color of their skin. If you are white you can eat at restaurant but if you are black
you are not allowed to and if you want to purchase something you must enter through the back.

I once told my grandmother that I hated being black and she became very angry and told me that

I should always be proud of who I am. I am not black I am an African American and descendant
from Africa. My grandmother told about a country called Africa that was rich in agriculture and
the homeland of my ancestors. She told me that Africa was a country that was invaded by slave
trader and kids were separated from their families and husbands were torn from their wives.
Most of them were taken away in shackles and chain and boarded into giant ships
(http://www.africanculturalcenter.org/4_5slavery.html). Many of my descendents were brought
to America to work as slaves in a cotton field on railroad and some were even allowed to work as
housekeeper and butlers. There was countless and numerous despicable act that were committed
upon theses slaves that keep them enslaved to their owners. Many of the slaves died trying to
regain their freedom. As time has passed many of the same ways and tradition are still present.
And although slavery is not actively still present but most of the same oppressive thinking still
 Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group
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exist. In the state of Kentucky they require separate schools, and also that no textbook be issued
to blacks this law is called the Jim Crow law
(www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/insidesouth.cgi?state=kentucky)