Q1. Background
An introduction to WHO participated---· I'm a 28-year-old black woman born and raised on the Northside of Columbus, OH, heterosexual, foundation is with Christian faith however moving into the direction of spiritualty instead of the idea of religion. I am a mother, the oldest of 7 siblings of a blended family. I am Ryan White Case Manager. I feel my experiences and my life have shaped me to be more liberal. I believe that no one should judge, there is ultimately one judge....
· I think context is hugely important, so I’ll be sharing a lot in this response: 37 year old; Christian; White; Gay male; Married to my husband for 8 years. I was raised in suburban Wisconsin, but have been in the Columbus area for since 2001. I was raised middle to upper middle income, but my parents were very frugal and we didn’t socialize much besides attending church two to three times a week. I’m a Christian who is a spiritual “mutt”, meaning I’m a mix of the various churches and denominations I’ve spent time in over the years. On most matters though, I’m socially progressive and theologically moderate to progressive. I was raised in an almost exclusively White Pentecostal/Evangelical Charismatic church, became a Lutheran, and now I’m nondenominational. I received a 3 year diploma in Pastoral Leadership from a Pentecostal church in Ohio named, “World Harvest Bible College”; Bachelor of Psychology from Ohio Christian University; a Master’s in Divinity and a Master’s of Theology from the then socially moderate Trinity Lutheran Seminary; and I’m finishing my internship for a Masters in Counseling from the progressive Methodist Theological School in Ohio. I pastored a moderate to progressive Lutheran church for 3 years until that closed and now I have pastored a nondenominational socially progressive’ish church for the past year. I’m also a chemical dependency counselor intern who works with many clients and police officers of color. In Wisconsin the only black people I saw were on TV when I was watching COPS, Cosby, or the Green Bay Packers football team. When I was at World Harvest living in the dorms we were about 50% White, 40% Black, and 10% Latinx. About half of the students of color were international students. The dorms are where I had my first and best honest conversations about race. The churches I attended after that tended to be mostly white, but diverse in every way except race.
· I was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in the year 1991 to progressive parents in what I heard to be a conservative society. My mother has been from a politically active family of the Bangladesh National Party (considered conservative) and my dad an avid supporter of Awami League (considered secular and progressive). Since I am privileged, my parents could afford an English medium education. I went to the best private school in the country and got into Uwaterloo. I have met interesting people there. Various races and various ethnicities. I was surprised by how graciously they have let me in.
I am a heterosexual male. I believe in the spiritual form of Islam, mainly Sufism. I think the aspect of love of God through prayer, music kind of builds a foundation on how you should treat others. That being said, I do occasionally drink alcohol and I want to use this term lightly, party!
Politically I think the state should bring balance into the economic playing field. There should be welfare. People should get the education required for sustenance. Weaker parts of the economy should be helped out. That is not the case yet for Bangladesh. It will probably take years. The inequality is stark. Equity is out of the question.
I have had various jobs in my life. I have not been able to pin point what my mastery really lies. Perhaps I will never be able to do so. I do not blame anyone but myself. Currently, my business partners and I operate cloud kitchens that serve pizza and dumplings.
· I’m a black gay male, with a non-binary identity, recently turned 34, and I reside on South East side of Columbus, Ohio. I graduated high school. After I attend trade school of Aveda Institute for Managing Cosmetology licenses. Currently working in STI/HIV prevention health care
· I am an African American male. I consider myself to be a liberal thinker. I have lived in Ohio, Texas, and Maryland.
· I am a 26 year-old Caucasian male. My political beliefs reflect a mixed-ideology: I believe in personal freedom and a non-restrictive state, such that any individual can express themselves however they want so long as it does not directly physically harm other people or reduce their access to resources or opportunities. I support a mixed-market economy with very limited restrictions on citizens starting, owning, and operating business. I believe in minimal restrictions on business except in the case of businesses monopolizing critical resources to everyday life an well-being (broadly defined).
I have lived in Ohio my entire life. I grew up in a small village (Population around 400) in a rural farm/industrial economy that was fairly depressed. Following that I have progressed to living in cities that vary in size from a small city to one of the largest in the state, all of which have differed in the city-level political and economical make-up.
I am currently a practicing theist whose foundation was primarily rooted in a combination of Methodist/Baptist Christianity followed by Non-denominational approaches. I am not a Christian as I do not endorse key tenets of the theology, though I do subscribe to many Christian teachings and way of life, predominantly on adopting a Love for all people. My religiosity is almost purely intrinsic.
I gained education from a small school, followed by completing a bachelors level education at a regional campus of Ohio State University. I then completed a Masters level education at a Private Catholic Institution in General Psychology, and am currently working on my Doctoral education at the Ohio State University.
Personally, I grew up with a series of unique life conditions. My oldest brother was imprisoned for violent crimes when I was a young child and my other brother was born with and still has lived a life with severe cerebral palsy, leaving him completely dependent on others for survival. My mother passed when I was 8, and my father when I was 17, leaving me orphaned before I exited high school. I have witnessed several of my family and friends succumb to lives of serious (to death) drug addictions, crime, and violence, which included a good deal of mental, emotional, and some physical abuse. In light of this, I have also experienced a tremendous amount of love and support from community members, teachers, and others outside of my family, who played non-normative roles in my life to fulfill what familial roles I was lacking, leaving me unbelievably blessed and gracious for this life.
· Race noire, 42ans, ethnie Eton, nationalité camerounaise. Pays situé en Afrique centrale, 25millions d'habitants, langues parlées français et anglais, technicien en bâtiment.
[Black, 42 year-old, construction technician of ethnicity Eton; from Cameroon, a French- and English-speaking country in central Africa with a population of 25 million.]
· Nationality: Egyptian/Canadian, Religion: Muslim, Age: 30, Profession: Pharmacist, Writer, Translator, Personal experiences: Lived through two revolutions.
Ethnicity/Race: Tricky one. Mixed. Arab, Turkish, Circassian, Coptic. Those are the main ones. If you go far enough up the family tree I daresay you'd find touches of Nubian, Persian and Kurdish. In the Middle East, the patriline is often definitive in primary ethnicity, so I guess you could say I'm patrilineally Arab, but the Arabs are a multi-racial ethnic group with all the colours of the spectrum. The family tree my family claims to descend from identifies the wife of the Arab progenitor of my bloodline as a Jewish business woman of some standing by most accounts, but I am unsure if she is of any Hebrew stock, or descended from converted Jews of Arabian stock. In any case, if you go back far enough, I likely have some Hebrew ancestry as well.
· I am a Puerto Rican woman. In the US I identify myself as a woman of color, brown, and Latina. I'm in graduate school earning my PhD, and I'm lucky to have been raised by parents who are college professors on the island--allowing us the money, time, and flexibility to travel a lot and live in different places; as well as having a very firm belief in the possibilities education affords our society and culture. On the island, I am part of a small (but ever-growing!) minority of people who believe Puerto Rico should be an independent nation, instead of the American colony it is today. That ideal alone guides me through my understanding of politics.
· I’m an Afro-Caribbean Canadian who identifies with the LGBTQ community. I have journeyed to the perspective of a political independent by occupying different political and religious spaces where I have had the privilege of absorbing the views and opinions shared by others. My professional experience working in the area of research has also taught me to be skeptical, until investigated scientifically, about ideas.
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