Doing this Oral History with my mother was a missed assignment but doing it now put into perspective how much I dont know about my mom. Often I find myself frustrated with her in my day to day life but I lack the retrospection to realize she has dealt with my same struggles but worse struggles I can’t even begin to comprehend. It was beautiful watching the love of discovering the world shift into her eyes again as she talks about these things very graciously. Hopefully this pushes us to have a lot more heartfelt conversations about her life and how she became who she is.

Me: What is your name?

Mom: Evelyn. Do they really need to know that?

Me: Too late now it’s already in there. Where were you born?

Mom: I was born in Queens, New York with Grandma and my grandfather who you don’t know much of. He unfortunately died of cancer years ago. 

Me: How did you feel about the atmosphere?

Mom: Oh well I like it I guess, I can’t really say too much because that’s where I lived but I always liked being around there since there were lots of friends I met there. That’s how I met people like Amber (close family friend) and her family and meeting them was everything to me.

Personally I loved how it was to be a kid in my neighborhood, you could always find some kid willing to play with you. You were kinda like that for a while, before more things like tablets and phones came out. 

Me: Do you regret the invention of newer technologies today?

Mom: Of course not. I think it’s easy for me to say yes but in reality I use my phone, laptop and tablets everyday. It’s much simpler to have a phone that can play music instead of carrying CDs and cassettes or having to carry maps around when your friends are learning how to drive.  But I do realize how lonely it feels recently with these phones, it’s harder to make friends in the same way we were able to when we were younger.

Me: How was it like living with Grandma?

Mom: Very difficult. You’re very lucky today that you know her the way she is now. Having so many siblings there were a lot of tasks that we had to do in order to make the house look good. It was a lot of yelling and screaming to order us to do it or otherwise we would get beat. However she is a very brave woman, I do feel resentment for the way she treated me and siblings but I understand why she stressed it. As for my siblings, it was always a disaster. It felt like every other week one of them was just in trouble (chuckle).

Me: What did you do for fun as a kid?

Mom: Often I watched TV, I know grandma bought both a Sega Genesis and a Nintendo. But if I weren’t doing those three things I was mostly outside like every other kid was at the time. That’s why I typically stress you going outside, I never minded you being a homebody or having to stress where you’re at but sometimes there’s more to life than what’s in your room. 

Me: How was your college experience?

Mom: Very fun honestly. I missed the carefree experience and the feeling of being an adult, having a whole new world to explore. Of course, you know I had you midway through my degree so I had to leave for a while but once I came back it felt refreshing to be able to learn again. I went to York College so I could often commute when picking you guys up from grandma’s house. 

Me: How do you feel about the experience of being a black woman in this country? 

Mom: Exhausting. Just exhausting all around to deal with. It’s already hard enough to be black and to be a woman but to have both feels like extra hard in all aspects. It’s why I tend to yell, I like to be soft spoken but you have to work extra to truly be heard. I’ve always made such a profound issue about our blackness because it’s something we can’t run away from. Lord knows I did when I was younger, but it just caught up to me the more I ran.

Me: Thank you for answering my questions mom. 

Mom: Thank you for asking. I love you. 

Humans and plants are very similar, starting off small and growing into bigger and complex beings . However, often the downfall of humans is caused by those who fail to self-reflect on how much our environment has changed us .This English class is very similar to those I’ve taken in the past but this one has grabbed my attention a lot more than others recently for its acceptance of all languages. Truthfully it did annoy me at first, feeling no sense of structure in the class or not understanding ‘the right way’ that would eventually be preferred by the professor. However that frustration soon turned into lots of enjoyment as I was able to accept in life that there is no right way and to embrace your way of expression for no-one can take that away from you. It’s always hard to feel as If life has a defining measure that you must follow but being able to be accepted on all fronts on who I am ( Oral History) and where I come from (Language and Literacy) was refreshing without it having to serve a larger purpose. 

When I used to write in other English classes, I always felt like my words and imagery was very lackluster compared to my peers and that I could always be doing better. English had such a strong emphasis on having ‘perfect’ language, at the very least language that emotionally pushes you. Despite me never failing said assignments or classes, I was always consistently disappointed as I wouldn’t be shown off to my peers as a golden star essay or the one that moved the teacher the most. For so long I had no reason why it bothered me that I didn’t appear my best in English. I was always better at math and science so I let the thoughts linger. I grew up and the more and more I wanted to try in English it became much more apparent where my stance of annoyance came from. I always felt super limited in the way that I can communicate or relay my ideas to my teachers. Even now, this whole essay is being written in such a professional manner for something that is based on my life and my experience. I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK FREELY AND HOWEVER I WANT. But that’s something that I hated about English classes in education. Often teachers just push students towards writing that is more geared towards professionalism and to try to imitate the academic language they read. But it always felt like I was playing pretend. I’ve been doing this since I was 11, forcing myself to think of whatever ‘big-boy word’ that can come in my head to impress the professor and get brownie points for appearing smart. But I absolutely hate that form of writing, we’re all still kids for christ sake. The best writing I’ve always encountered is the writings that are so simple in language yet monumental in their reach that people are forced to read and listen rather than some long vocab show off demonstration. That’s not to say that academic vocab and rigorous language isn’t something to prepare for, of course it’s something integral in professional spaces. But why are so many state mandated tests built where the person who knows how to come off more ‘professional’ will always get the higher grade when nothing they said was of substance? 

Being in this class was that breath of fresh air that I needed for me to truly love how to write again and how to express myself the best way I know possible. Often we don’t explore English from the perspective of those who are just now learning, or having unique ways of communicating it as we focus on it through the lens of American raised students. This new perspective made me wonder how restrictive English classes have been up to this point and make me wonder if they do it out of discrimination or if they don’t know how to teach it with open mindedness. With Authors like Amy Tan, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes brought beautiful counterpoints to the way that we live isn’t natural with people who oppose/hate our lifestyles. Often we are charged as different despite us just being who we are, and why should we feel shame with those feelings. 

Overall I really liked this class. This has definitely stood out to me more than a typical English class and I’m sure others can say the same.

Like most research essays, it was really hard for me. It always seem easy to have your own opinion and to be able to back it up in what you believe, doing the same with outside evidence with people who may or may not fully agree with you is even harder. Regardless, it was a fun part of the class because I was able to once again practice my writing skills and practice backing up my takes with credible sources. This was more enjoyable than the other essay as it had more creative freedom. Hopefully this inspires me to hone my writing skills over the years.

In a constantly changing world to new standards and customs, do you decide to hold onto traditions as old as time or do you decide to break free and set on a new path? Throughout the course of my Freshman Composition class this was often a question that would appear in my head and make me wonder what I would choose. Being an African-American with no collection of where his origins begin beyond America, the importance of tradition was always felt compared to those who understood where they came, giving respect to their cultural traditions. Despite that, I grew up in my life never seeing tradition as ‘essential’ but optional to letting it define you.  The texts and interviews I read in the class would change my view however, it made me understand that tradition stood as a chance to distinguish yourself from others and to be proud of the culture and heritage that influences you everyday. It’s easy to lose yourself especially in a country like America that is culturally homogeneous but it doesn’t have to be that way. Often when people immigrate to a new country, they feel the urge to cleanse themselves of their original culture and shed their skin like a snake. However, people should be proud of their original traditions that shaped them to truly be.

Part of the beauty of language is shown through the hidden styles and techniques of an author rather than the obvious messages and themes that are depicted. The creativity in Language is conveyed through the style of the speaker, in just their style you can understand their POV, their background, their lifestyle and culture all in one go. ‘If Black English isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What is?’ by James Baldwin is a powerful essay that uses raw emotion of anger and disgust mixed with personal experience with white people to passionately defend his one point, why should black English be demonized while others are celebrated? Baldwin examines this point carefully going through key moments in history as he breaks down the ideal of what language is and compares it to the Black English African Americans were forced to make out of the necessity of slavery and racial tensions. Baldwin spins on the traditional use of essays and puts his personal emotion into it, taking it from an academic hypothesis but also an assertive claim that forces the reader to change their mind when it comes to languages. ‘Why I keep speaking up’ by Safwat Saleem is a video that also uses the author’s personal emotions to tell their story as a 1st generation immigrant from the middle east. Saleem uses lots of humor in order to lighten up the audience and carefully decides to contrast it with somber parts of unacceptance and being outcasted. Likewise he also uses analogies and his art to illustrate how it felt as younger he tried to find his footing in this world. Saleem, unlike Baldwin, depicts a more personal lifestyle he had and shares his struggles to find interpersonal community striving for empathy in his audience. 

There’s an interview with a Griot, a West African Instrument player that talks about the griot and the power that Griots hold in that culture. The Griot is passionate about his instruments, using beautiful language about the instrument and its power to story tell about the past of West Africans. The Griot often stresses the importance of learning said stories and contrasts it between his Griot life and his business life. There’s a level of similarity between Baldwin and Saleem as there is still a level of passion that is talked about but it contrasts itself in how biased based on being an important instrument player for his culture. ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker is a beautiful short story that talks about the minor conflict as Walker’s Daughter researches about her ancestral roots and begs her mom and sister to do the same. Walker demonstrates this with contrast between the body language of Maggie and her to Dee, as Dee radiates new confidence with her persona. Alongside, Walker also tends to callback to life experiences that were had in order to give more context for their experience as black people living in 60s America. The use of the short story elevates the story heavily, seeing the constant shift between three black women all collectively having different views on their identity and being comfortable with it.

While reading each text, they share a common theme of someone who either learns to be proud of their culture or urging those to respect their culture and traditions in the diverse world we live in. I believe Tradition is an important aspect, the part of us we can’t run away from as a part of ourselves will always default to these actions. Journalists Shawn Clarke and Ruth Wylie convey its importance in their article ‘Surviving a Cultural Genocide: Perspectives of Indigenous Elders on the Transfer of Traditional Values’. The elders in the article stress the importance of culture as Clarke and Wylie highlight a quote “When we talk about genocide the definition is to extinguish the culture through the children”. This resonates with me a lot as I personally think about the Holocaust and what’s going on in Gaza, often genocide kills tradition and culture as a side effect of its hatred. Another article ‘Cultural Traditions: Their Essence and Structure’ by Andijan Uzbekistan suggests the tradition is inherently beneficial “to introduce the activity of a new generation into the channel along which the activities of older generations have been developing”. The main point relating to these two texts is that passing down Traditions to its younger audience is integral to its survival, if outsiders oppose tradition like how Baldwin claims it can lead to devastating results as their identity is washed away. Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world and every tradition can’t be passed, or change becomes the new ideal in the world. In ‘Managing Traditions: A Critical Capability for Family Business Success’, it talks about the issues that come with managing business but traditions are allowed to serve both a purpose for bring old ideas while refreshing every generation, Roy Suddaby explains Traditions “makes them a useful device to actively mediate change by making radical, discontinuous change seem incremental, evolutionary, and consistent with the past”. Similarly, Calvin Harris Jr. the author of ‘Embracing Our Traditions while Thinking Beyond the Traditional’ highlights how accounting was a career widely built on traditions that have been around since its creation. Harris Jr however talks about the transformation that is awaiting the career with new technological changes and  mindset changes. Instead of cowering in fear he says “The present-day CPA can have a meaningful career without a focus on our traditional paths or audit or taxation”.  The overarching point throughout both texts are meant to show that although traditions can be threatened by the ideas of change, it isn’t to its detriment as people can help these ideas evolve through time and new inventions. 

Concluding this essay, the overall point is to highlight how important traditions have to be for us as they must last long decades and centuries to stay alive. Additionally, traditions must be accepted from all people, to silence a group of peoples tradition is to destabilize their society and kill off their identity. 

Works Cited 

Harris, Calvin, Jr. “Embracing Our Traditions while Thinking Beyond the Traditional.” The CPA Journal, vol. 93, no. 11-12, Nov.-Dec. 2023, p. 5. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A780973889/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=3064ac3b. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Suddaby, R., & Jaskiewicz, P. (2020). Managing Traditions: A Critical Capability for Family Business Success. Family Business Review, 33(3), 234-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486520942611

Aripova Z.S.. “CULTURAL TRADITIONS: THEIR ESSENCE AND STRUCTURE” Экономика и социум, no. 5 (60), 2019, pp. 21-23.

Clark, Shawn, and Ruth Wylie. “Surviving a Cultural Genocide: Perspectives of Indigenous Elders on the Transfer of Traditional Values.” Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, May 2021, pp. 316+. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.29333/ejecs/663. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Walker, Alice, and Barbara 1943- Christian. Everyday Use. Rutgers U Press, 1994.

“Why I Keep Speaking up, Even When People Mock My Accent.” Performance by Safwat Saleem , TED, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4a0NvLTebw. Accessed 2024.

Baldwin , James. “If Black English Isn’t English, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html?st=cse. Accessed 1 May 2024.

“Interview with Griot (West African Storyteller) Alhaji Papa Susso.” Audible , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9wrTasaln8. Accessed 1 May 2024.

The assignment was fun. Challenging. Forced me to reconnect with old memories. Didnt learn much but at least it helped in that department. In the future i hope for a more fun project. This is a good beginner project to start yourself out on.

Despite my quiet and safe nature in life, something I’ve always been astounded in was the different ways people could incorporate language with inflections and tone. Although speaking isn’t much of a talent, you could always spot who was better at it and watch them perform circles around the other person without villainizing themselves or causing harm to either party. My mother was a great person at this, especially when it comes to things such as customer service or arguing. She would be annoyed prior to said encounter and swear about how those people were incompetent but once it came face-to-face, she could be calm and say less than 10 words,the workers would obey her like she’s the boss. As a kid, quite frankly it scared me knowing my mom could portray those many sides of her but it almost fascinated me with how easy it was for others to listen to her for just being an ordinary person. Her words mixed with hidden intents of anger and sometimes rage, all contrasted with her monotone corporate voice as she’s forced to code-switch in order to not give herself away or to look bad. When I was older, I never understood it as much but growing up it’s been a guide to my life that I had to follow. Without language, we are mere children taking an adventure through this world and we will be doomed without learning it. Shortly after I would make it my life goal to learn articulation and show that I can express myself in the same way my mother could, of course through the power of media (something 8-year old me would very soon pay for). While I would watch TV, play games, read books or even watch anime , I would steal their very phrases and their speaking patterns to bring into my mind and study them to say to others to come off smarter. I used to study archetypes and found the smart but silent character to be my favorite, the one who could monologue and come off smart while everyone looked in awe at his intelligence. It was my perfect vision that I would try to mold myself in. School was often the time I would take my practice and for years it worked. Starting out as a troubled kid who struggled with his anger, I would shape-shift into this person who was stunningly smart, monologuing about answers trying to impress teachers or to show off that I knew everything. In retrospect,I remember lots of students(even teachers) annoyed at my cockiness to come off smart, but who cared? As long as my language and grades could back up the fact that I was smart, then no one could knock me off my pedestal and I would always be the best in my head. At least, that’s what I thought until I hit middle school started in the 7th grade and my stuttering would begin. I remember the very first time it happened too, the grand answer I was gonna give off in History only to be met by gibberish that I can’t even remember what I wanted to say. The embarrassment that came next still haunts me to this very day, my teacher Mr.Perez tilting his head in confusion “What are you trying to say, Jayden?”Some kids are raising their eyebrows, some desperately looking the other way so as not to hurt my feelings and worst of all, close friends trying to help saying “Just slow down.”  That was the worst one, seemingly basic advice that should help anyone but it would always come to follow me every time I stuttered in the coming months, hell even years. It shattered me, I wasted years playing the quiet and smart character that I so badly wanted to portray only for the mirror to crash and show that I’m just like everyone else. If not for my immense knowledge, what else do I bring to the table? It also affected my personal life with friends, at that point my brain goes anxious and starts thinking of all the worst possibilities. What if I do this at my graduation, with romantic interests, even my wedding? It ran up and down my mind and others could see that as I began silencing myself, so as to not embarrass myself. I made many friends through middle school and one that I always think of is K (don’t want to share his name). He wasn’t particularly great at school, not the best at athletics or even necessarily the smartest. However, something I realized that he could do is always get personally close to teachers, making them laugh and giggle even when the teacher demanded it turn into ‘serious time’. He even got close to girls who went to a neighboring school (we went to an all boys school) and was able to talk and fit into any group he pleased. Middle-school me wouldn’t admit it but parts of me felt jealous knowing his power was likewise to the one I thought I would be able to channel. When K and I eventually got close, I questioned his skill to talk so well. I wanted to know all the specifics and study him the same way I did the TV characters and change myself in that way, hoping to eradicate the stuttering problem. Instead, what I got was a wakeup call as K admittedly told me “You monologue a lot. Why not just keep it short?” It offended me at the time but I realized that there was no ill-will in the same way others used to laugh at me and that he had genuinely meant it. I always over explained my answers in ways that were never needed, mixed with my irrational speed when talking. It was bound to start my stuttering problem. Taking that knowledge opened my eyes that language is not only about seeming smart, but rather making sure it’s understandable in the context of everywhere. I can explain things in a very articulate way but what does articulation matter if it just scrambles the meaning across people? It was originally hard to rewire my brain, it still is to this day as I struggle in stuttering to my peers or in the class. But language doesn’t have to be this impossible game only made for those who are smart. Everyone has a right to language and keeping it easy to understand made me reach out to more people than ever.

Welcome to CUNY Academic Commons. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!