“From beginning to end”

My name is Armani Peterson and I was born at Victory Hospital in Waukegan on August 17, 1991. I am black, white, and Native American. My mom's name is Ann Peterson and my dad’s name is Adonis Peterson. I have two sisters named Asia and Tiara. I and Asia grew apart but I and Tiara are close to this day. I grew up the first ten years with both of my parents in the household then they divorced.  I lived in Gurnee, Illinois for one year then moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin for five years then Zion, Illinois. I'm very multi-talented. I played basketball, band, sing, and did acting growing up. I spent my whole life in Zion from grade school to high school. I started off a Christian school where the teachers thought i was too wild to be moved a grade higher.

I learned my traits and some morals at Newport elementary school. Then for sixth through eighth grade i went to Beach Park Middle School. For high school, i went to Zion-Benton and played football for my first year and strictly basketball for all four years. My junior year my basketball team took second in state.  My favorite colors are red and for short people call me Mani. For a hobby I enjoy playing basketball and hanging out with friends. I stayed in Zion Went to a Christian school when i was in kindergarten. All of those experiences led me to Wisconsin- Parkside University. I'm now a sophomore but undecided my major so whatever i choose i plan on being successful.

                What I learned over the semester is that race only defines people to a certain degree. I still believe that our past has a great deal to do with how we are today. Many people want to believe that race doesn’t define them but in all reality it does. More unintentionally we are all affected and we can’t run from it but to only embrace it and deal with the hand we’ve been giving. I can’t control what the past is but I can work towards the future and be a leader. One light can out shine a room full of darkness.

"Race and how it evolves into something more than just research"

"Kerstin Kimel(2001) states that lacrosse is perceived as a white-girl sport, without a doubt," said women's lacrosse coach Kerstin Kimel. "I think that presents a little bit of a challenge for some of the girls.... I think it's a sport that a lot of young African Americans don't play. Truthfully, that's just the way it is." That quote is from one of my sources that i will be using on my research project. The tittle of the newspaper is "The Chronicle" and it will be a source to help me get my point across. I'm not sure if i am having my question to broad. Thats why i'm glad that my teacher helped me out with ideas and suggestions for my research.

What is a friend?

"Regarding themselves as "friends" of the Indians, they believed that the reservations only served to segregate native peoples from white society and postpone their assimilation"(Takaki. 234). What i was confused about was how is it that reservations were used to segregate the Indians from the whites and i thought the purpose was to give them what they deserved? Even though the Native Americans deserve more than just land i thought the whites were looking out for them. My professor responded to me that they were calling them "friends" so there’s a difference. I can see both sides but at the same time what is a friend? A friend in my opinion is someone that won’t ever do what the white did to minorities in the past. How could friend even come out of their mouths when all they did was abuse the Native Americans physically and mentally? There also is a story in the book where the Indians would go to a meeting that was set up for their reservation. They were told to bring their bow and arrow and traditional costume. "He then retreated to the tepee and reemerged wearing "civilized" clothing, symbolizing a crossing from the primitive to the modern world"(Takaki. 235). How the whites would make them change to what they are doing is wrong. Why did they feel like their way was the right way? If only there was true freedom of speech back then.

"Black equates the meaning of bad"

How the whites gave the Irish names that were disrespectful and said they were similar to how blacks were. They felt that any other race that was not "white" was to be downgraded. At some point the whites were calling the Irish “Irish niggers" like it was an insult to be associated or compared to blacks. Many times the white would even try manipulating so they wouldn’t appear so bad after all and blame another race. The Irish were brawling against the blacks at some point. A question I ask myself is why they didn’t see that they have similarities and come together to fight for what was right. What i learned, but haven’t researched yet is that in the past the Europeans would go to Africa and took ideas and made it their own. Pretty much writing their own history and what we learn today can be somewhat false because who would of at the time been able to interfere? No one, and if you tried you were killed and never thought of ever again. When i actually think critically i come to the conclusion that America was founded on many different people's perspective. If you put the past to the present you can see why racial groups act the way they do. Even right or wrong African Americans or any other minority groups were taken advantage of physically and mentally for America to be what it is today. Now that we know what to do will Americans keep attributing or exclude?

"From Removal to Reservation"

The chapter i read was primarily discussing how the different tribes were removed from their homes and cheated out of what’s rightfully theirs. The tribes Choctaw and Cherokee gave me a totally different outlook on the past and how things were dealt with. There was a part in the story where the Cherokee had no say in what was happening, but the whites portrayed themselves as being equal. "It was not "sanctioned by the great body of the Cherokee," and was made "without their participation or assent (p.95)." Indians were taken advantage of many times because their lack of education. The whites were making treaties one sided, so it would always favor them. If the whites even bothered to help the Native Americans they (Indians) were expected to give their lawyers, which were white, more money than they can keep for themselves.  When i was reading i remembered a movie called "Dances with Wolves". That’s one of my all-time favorite movies. The reason i was connected through the reading to the movie is because it was the first encounter i had with actually seeing how Native Americans and Whites met. There's obviously more than meets the eye, but at a young age everything had an impact on me. Why as Americans do we submit to only looking out for ourselves rather than coming together? Why do we have signs right in front of us but still ignore them because we want the upper hand? All i know is that we are still fighting wars within ourselves to this day that were started hundreds of years ago.

Autobiography

My name is Armani Peterson and I was born at Victory Hospital in Waukegan on August 17, 1991. I am black, white, and Native American. My mom's name is Ann Peterson and my dad’s name is Adonis Peterson. I have two sisters named Asia and Tiara. I and Asia grew apart but I and Tiara are close to this day. I grew up the first ten years with both of my parents in the household then they divorced.  I lived in Gurnee, Illinois for two years then moved to Zion, Illinois. I'm very multi-talented. I played basketball, band, sing, and did acting growing up. I spent my whole life in Zion from grade school to high school. I started off a Christian school where the teachers thought i was too wild to be moved a grade higher.

 At Newport and that is where i learned many traits. Then for sixth through eighth grade i went to Beach Park Middle School. For high school, i went to Zion-Benton and played football for my first year and strictly basketball for all four years. My junior year my basketball team took second in state.  My favorite colors are red and for short people call me Mani. For a hobby I enjoy playing basketball and hanging out with friends. I stayed in Zion Went to a Christian school when i was in kindergarten. All of those experiences led me to Wisconsin- Parkside University. I'm now a sophomore but undecided my major so whatever i choose i plan on being successful.

My race defines me as who I am. Without the tragic and disaster in the past, I wouldn’t be here. I’m not sure of how I am mixed with different ethnicities. To be all honest my ancestors could have been raped and that’s how I evolved. I don’t try to think of the past but look at the future; because that’s something I can change.