As an very ambitious and enthusiastic whit South African girl I can proudly say that my religion which is Christianity shaped not most but all of my believes. In the following essay I will discuss two of the beliefs that shaped my views when it comes to assumptions, prejudices and and views of life.

One of the most important aspects of this religion is the Bible. The bible provides scripture inspired by God. This book provides very prominent ways to live and exactly tell you how to live a great and successful live. Therefore, when someone oversteps these "rules" it is often frowned upon by Christians as we should hold each other accountable. When we do this it is seen as being judgemental by the people who is not part of this religion. While this religion provides sustainability and continuity it also hold many challenges navigating the complexity of modern diversity. The scripture and the ethic group I form part of lead me to believing in praise, worship  and being faithful to God. This includes loving everyone, being obedient towards God and above all making sacrifices to help your loved ones and to honor Jesus. The Bible shaped me in such a way that I believe in a right and wrong with no in between where in many cultures they believe in the in between. This also can create conflict and differences between ethic groups. Within white ethnic communities, the preservation of traditional values and customs often holds significant cultural and spiritual significance, serving as a source of identity and cohesion. Within white ethnic communities, the preservation of traditional values and customs often holds significant cultural and spiritual significance, serving as a source of identity and cohesion. In this way the Bible shaped my and my ethic groups views.

The ethic group I form part of believe that our religion provides an framework for understanding the purpose of life. We believe that life is a gift from God and that every person has a unique purpose in life. We emphasize the importance of community and fellowship among believers. This fact challenges me to understand how some people can function with very little human contact. Our faith teaches us hope in times of hardships and always gets rewarded by God for being resilient. This challenges me to see how people give up s fast without even really trying. Being a Christian is many things but one of them is to give/serve without expecting something in return which shaped my view on what life is all about. As for most people are greedy and their life revolves around receiving a lot more than giving.

Overall, being a Christian can profoundly impact one's worldview, influencing perspectives on purpose, morality, community, hope, service, and eternity. Although being apart of this ethic group can be challenging it is much more rewarding when it comes to shaping your views as an individual.

After reading study unit four I can fully understand how my social network functions and how I have been able to maintain my social relationships over such a long period of time. I know now that social relations differs for everyone after I thought that most people had this one thing in common.

I will start of by explaining how my family and I maintain a healthy and very close relationship. My family also formes part of my kinship structure. Reciprocities means to exchange comersial benefits. So this is definitely not the word. Let me explain why. The things that my mother and father do for me I could never return that kind of value but we maintain a loving relationship by me being endlesley thankful for what they do for me and showing my thankfulness through respect and helping where I can. In my parents eyes the only thing they expect of me is to furfil my role as a daughter in the household. My brother and I play equally important roles in each others lives. Then lastly I have my best friend. When I for example buy her a gift, the last thing I would expect of her is to buy me something in return because she knows that the biggest gift for me in return would be her showing how much she enjoys that specific gift. Evan if the roles are reversed she would react the same.

Secondly the community I grew up in mean quite a lot to me therefore I make sure to maintain a good relationship with them. Reciprocities plays quite a big role when it comes to myself and my community. For example if one of my family friends buy me a birthday gift I would also buy her a gift when its her birthday making sure that the gift has equal value then the one she bought me. Not because I have to but because I do not want her to feel that she is the only one putting effort into our relationship. I understand that reciprocities are more relevant in a community that is in a state of poverty but it can still be used otherwise to maintain healthy relationships.

A big social network I am now part of is the university because this is the social system I form part of every day. The relationships I formed here also requires reseprocities. For example one of my friends cannot cook so I offred to cook for her but in return I can eat some of her food. So this fits us both perfectly. Another one of my friends help me with some of my tasks and in return I buy her coffee.

In the blog above I learned how my social network works and where exactley I fit in. I also learned what a big of a role reciprocities play in my everyday life.

A day in my Life

It was the 03/03/2024. As start to hear the noises outside I told myself it is time to open my eyes and seas the day. I noticed the smell of freshly cut grass as I laid on my back and this gave me nostalgia. When I was still a little girl my Dad always cut the grass on a Saturday morning. Shortly after he would come wake me up and that is usually when the smell of green cut grass filled my lungs assuring that I will be a very optimistic person for the day.

As I walked down the hall of my residence where I recently live, I can smell bacon that someone is cooking. This took me back to 18 years of Sunday afternoons when our family hosts a Traditional braai day. Where the smell of the meat flavors filled the air until it made my mouth water. It also reminded me of when I was young my Mom use to cook us bacon on a Saturday morning, but it was always just my mom cooking. I never really given much thought to this until I got a bit older and saw it as unfair that only me and her should do the cleaning and cooking while my brother and dad just sat there. Therefore I asked my Mom but WHY!! She replied that if I would rather go stand outside and fix fences or leeks in the roof. In that moment I realized that each and every one of us in a household plays a very important role just in different times of the day.

Later on the 3rd of March I went to go see some of my family here in Potch. When I arrived they have prepared a entire meal for me with lots of suprises. I immediately saw myself at one of our family events about 6 years ago. I remember that when I arrived at the family event the older people would stand up and expect you as a child to greet them first. When we dished up, the kids always waited until the elderly was done dishing up their food, without question of course. I later on started to understand what our family stand for and what we believe in. I soon after realized that hierarchy was one of our believes and that this was taken very seriously. The older a person are the more respect you will show. That is a value that I will always carry with me.

I went to a coffeeshop with one of my friends. There we laughed so much. I could not breathe. I bent over from laughter because my stomach would not stop aching. That is how hard I laughed. I went back in time and saw myself lying on a hospital bed because of a stomach virus. I remember how excruciating the pain was and how isolated I felt in that time but it also reminded me how good it felt to see all of my friends again and socialize.

When I went back to my residence me and my friends had dinner together. I was holding the one girls hand that was praying. As I swaddled my fingers around her hand I saw my Grandpa. Everytime when we ate at their house I would be the one holding his hand while he would be the one saying the prayers because of the fact that he is not only the head of the house but also the oldest. Therefore hierarchy once again plays a role.

C.Baard 51499584

C. Baard.

51499584

BLOG

For the past couple of weeks I have been reflecting on myself and found that my views on the world only formed part of the weight that creates otherness.

To other, means to exclude people who does not fit in the norm of a social group. This relates directly to the fact that I have unconsciously been creating stereotypes that puts people in boxes. I use to view the white culture more dominant than the black culture. I can see now that this stereotype I created minorized black people and this formed part of the white supremacy act.

I came to the realization that my views was completely out of line when I read the pieces of Miner (1956) and Wianana (2005).

First I need to outline the fact of otherness covered by Said (1978) which leads me directly to White Supremacy.

White people are more superior than the black culture. This way of thinking I created otherness towards the black nation.

I can say that I come from a very conservative background therefore I would have never thought that the stereotypes I created and very strongly believed in would ever form part of something as serious as white supremacy. It is now very clear for me that I have a great lack of information due to misinformation. I now realize that the problem does not lie within the black culture but within myself due to a lack of understanding their culture.

Miner (1956) and Wianana (2005) made me look right through my background and right into the truth.

Therefore I want to confess that my creation of stereotypes was incorrect and a result of my roots.

In this reflective blog I show how the stereotypes I created of the black culture leads to otherness.

First of all I show how I came to my stereotypes and now came to the realization that this way of thinking is completely out of line.

This supports my most recent belief that there should me no such thing as white supremacy. It should be so to prevent othering so that all cultures can excel in their own ways.