Brooke Steinicke

March 26, 2015

Dance 1010
Life History Interview
For my life history project I interviewed one of my classmates in my photography class.
Her name is Stephanie, I chose to interview her because she and I have become really close
friends and as I have come to know her better I have found that we have many cultural
differences. Stephanie belongs to a Chinese culture, she was born in Houston, Texas and grew up
there. Stephanie and I have two classes together this semester and we have become really great
friends so asking her if I could interview her was an easy thing for me to do and she readily
agreed to let me interview her. I felt that the interview went very well, I was very interested and
invested in her thoughts and comments that she shared with me. I found myself adding in some
of my own thoughts and beliefs that I have grown up with. I also found that I was interested to
see what she would say back to some of my comments. Overall, I think the interview was very
successful and made our friendship grow even more.
I started out the interview by asking Stephanie what her culture was and from that simple
question we conversed and kept building on the subject. Stephanie was extremely fun to learn
about because not only does she come from a Chinese decent she also grew up in Houston, Texas
which has a culture all on its own. From the Chinese side of Stephanies culture she celebrates
the Chinese New Year and a couple of years after a death of a loved one they gather together and
celebrate the life of the person. From the Texan side of her culture she has found that she has a
love for big trucks, horses and barbeque. I asked Stephanie was she thought she has taken away
most from her culture and she explained to me that it is very important for her to respect the

elderly and always call others by Maam and Sir or Mrs. and Mr. She explained to me
that this is embedded in her brain and that it mostly has come from her Chinese decent. Growing
up if she were to violate this rule she would get punished by her parents. I found this very
interesting because it is something very different from the way that I was raised. I have always
been taught to respect the elderly but I havent grown up in a way where I always had to call
them by a proper name.
When I asked Stephanie how she feels about being different or the minority here in Utah
she explained to me that it is very hard. She has seen that it is extremely hard to get a managerial
position if you are not white and male. She found that many companies require minorities to
have a degree to even be considered for a position, whereas a white male would not have to have
one to be considered. She told me that she talks to her fianc about it, who is a white male, and
he has told her that there are no females or minorities in his work place. This was very sad for me
to hear, I do not like the fact that it is harder for people who are part of the minority group to get
jobs that they deserve just as everyone else does. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that
there are people out there who are just as qualified if not more qualified than the standard white
male business man. This brought many different thoughts to my mind while listening to
Stephanie talk about these things. I have seen the prejudice against women and I could not
imagine what its like to be another race that is not considered a privileged group in our society.
When I asked Stephanie how she felt about being different she simply looked and me
and said that she does not care. She is not racist and she always tries to understand other peoples
situations before judging them based on their outward appearance. I loved the way that she
replied to that question because I think that is something we all need to do and work on. It does
not matter how we look on the outside, it is what is on the inside and the experiences that we all

have had that really matter. Hearing someone who is considered a minority in our society say
those words truly opened my eyes and made me want to be better. I am a part of the privileged
group in society and I am not a good example of what I should be. I try not to be judgmental but
deep down I can feel it, I try to fight it and do the best I can but in certain situations it still seems
to seep on through.
I asked Stephanie if she feels that she gets judged or treated different here in Utah than in
Texas and her reply was very surprising to me. She told me that here in Utah she feels a lot more
pressure and like she is being looked at differently and judged differently than in Texas. She has
lived here for a little over a year now and has found that there are a lot of white people here and
that everyone is part of the LDS religion. She has seen that religion is a lot bigger and more
prominent here in Utah then back in her hometown. I found this to be very true when seeing
things from her point of view. I am part of the LDS church and I have heard many times that
there are so many members here in Utah and that we tend to exclude others from our religion,
which is not the truth behind the religion; but by living in a place where it is so big at times it
does seem to come off in such a way. Stephanie did not grow up being part of a religion so
seeing so many people around her a part of the same one is very interesting to here. She has
formed an opinion that the LDS culture is a nice culture but the people involved in it seem to be
less friendly and socially awkward and that they dont like to socialize with others outside of the
religion. This was very hard for me to hear because I am a member of that culture and that is not
how I act, but I know that there are other members out there who do act in such a way. Her
experience with the LDS religion is completely opposite of mine. I have grown up in the religion
and I have always lived here in Utah so it is something that I am used to seeing. It is very

challenging to hear the perspective of someone who is different from me and who had never
even heard of the religion before moving here to Utah.
From doing this report I learned many new and intriguing things both about the Chinese
and Texan culture. I learned that Stephanies experience in this country as not being a part of a
privileged group has been a very hard thing for her to do. Everything in her life seems to be a
little bit more of a challenge for her. Not only is she a female, she is a female with a prominent
Asian descent. She has found she is looked at differently in certain situations and that it is even
harder to find a good job being a minority and a female. This assignment had a huge impact on
me and the way that I view the world and minority groups. Hearing someone talk one on one to
me about this problem was truly a huge eye opener. I felt horrible that I was sitting there across
form her hearing about the hard things she has had to learn and go through where I havent had a
problem. This assignment definitely challenged some of my assumptions about minority groups
and non-privileged groups in our society. Hearing Stephanie talk about how she simply does not
care and strays away from racism as much as possible made me want to be better and more like
her. This made me want to act and get to know more people that are different from me in many
different ways. In the end we are all human, it doesnt matter what we look like from the outside
and it never should. This assignment really helped to me to step into Stephanies shoes and see
the world from her point-of-view. It made me think of what it would be like to be her and how
my life might be different from hers. It surprised me to hear about how strict the Chinese culture
is about respecting the elderly and using formal names at all times. I never knew just how strict
they were about that rule. I also found it surprising that here in this country we are not used to
using salutations. I never realized it until Stephanie talked about how important that was to her. It
is embedded in her to always say thank you and to acknowledge someone when they enter or

leave a room. She found that here, we often ignore those around us and we dont acknowledge
those around us as much as we should. I found this very interesting and it made me want to be
better at it because I think that is a wonderful thing to do. Overall, this assignment was a very
good experience for me and truly opened up my eyes to seeing non-privileged groups in a
different way and made me want to be better and more understanding of all those around me.
This is an amazing country that we live in and if we dont protect it and acknowledge that, it is
going to be lost. I hope to continue to improve and be a better person each and every day and to
put myself in another persons shoes before judging them by what I can see, because it is what I
cannot see that is most important.