Racial Identity Reflection

A Musician of Many Cultures is from the National Public Radio 's, NPR, This I believe series. in a world were the population of multiracial individuals is steadily increasing, not only is this essay is inspiring, but it is relevant as well as important for the next generation to be exposed to material similar to Ma 's essay. In his essay, A Musician of Many Cultures, Yo-Yo Ma summarizes his personal beliefs. He explains how a persons background and ethnicity does not define who you are, but your choice of expression can. His essay is primarily about his path to acceptance, which shaped who he has become today.

I found this article to be very interesting and extremely heartbreaking. Jonathan Kozol paints a vivid and grim picture of predominantly black or Hispanic schools in and around some the largest cities in America. Even in areas where the distribution of races is somewhat equal, Kozol tells us that most white families would rather send their kids by bus to a school where more than half of the students are white. Some schools, like Martin Luther King Jr. high school in New York City, are located purposefully in upper middle class white neighborhoods in hopes to draw in a more diverse selection of children, i.e. more white kids. It seems however, according to Kozol, that this plan not only did not work, but has made it a prime and obvious example of modern segregation in our schools. One teacher Kozol interviewed at a school where 95 percent of the students were either black, asian, hispanic or native american, told him “not with bitterness but wistfully--of seeing clusters of white parents and their children each morning on the corner of a street close to the school, waiting for a bus that took the children to a predominately white school”. (p.203)

The model I chose to apply to myself is the Hardiman White Racial Identity. The five stages of development are: 1. Naiveté or lack of social consciousness, 2. Acceptance, 3. Resistance, 4. Redefinition, and 5. Internalization. Stage one, naiveté is the stage of my childhood where I was not aware of races or any judgments based on race. I did not have any contact with African Americans until I was about 7 years old. My parents and friends did not have African American friends and no African American families lived in our neighborhood. At the age of seven, my mother enrolled me in dance classes at a local dance studio in the town we lived in. One of the students in my class was an African American boy. I did not think of him any differently than any of the other students in the dance class nor did I formulate any generalizations about race. He was considered a friend as well as a member of the dance team. I recall the picture that appeared in the dance recital program -- he was placed in the center of the group perhaps because he was the only boy in the class.

The article by Dorothy Roberts focuses around how race was invented. She talks about how and why people of different cultures were treated differently. It reflected on the different laws that “assigned” people to certain races and how it was different from state to state. In the second chapter Roberts talks about how people aren’t that different from each other genetically but we still focus on that 0.1%.

Racial identity development is something every African American child has to go through. The main approach is normally linked to racial identities, awareness, and ethics. African American children awareness is normally reflected by their mental ability to distinguish an individuals’ basis based on characteristics. Growing up the main influences that influenced my personal development was social networks, family, and historical events. Family helped influence personal development because they expose me to black culture. Historical events fall along the lines of celebrating holidays such as Black History Month in school or even church.

When filling out a questionnaire, it is only a matter of time before I come across the predictable: what is your race/ethnicity? I do not have to think long nor hard about my answer. In fact, I do not hesitate to pencil in African American. Why is that? It could very well be that at a glance my skin tone and accent is enough for people to quickly label me as such thus reaffirming my identity. Though, I know people with similar physical dispositions that struggle with the question every time it arises and others complain about the limited options that make them feel pigeonholed into too broad of an identity.

Throughout the semester, the course has taught me a lot about myself and those around me. I have learned that based on Cross’ racial identity model I am in stage 5. It was new to me to find out there was model based on racial identity. Stage 5 means that I able to talk to anyone in and outside of my racial group. Which would mean that I would not have to seek counseling to correct an issue because there isn't one. During my life, I was at other stages of the model because I did not feel as comfortable talking to people that were not in my racial group. When I was younger and I did not speak English very well, I would stick with those that spoke Spanish. Being around them made me more comfortable because they were like me and spoke the same

Racial identity plays a role in the physical and psychological features of humans. Physically, humans in different parts of the globe endure different conditions and environments. Humans adapt to their environments and obtain different physical traits, henceforth, these physical traits have become adjacent to race. Psychologically, ancestral prejudices and influences throughout history have lingered through the generations and have impacted modern racial identities and tensions. Ethnic conflicts of the past such as the Social Darwinist theory of a "superior race" are morally refuted in current times, but that assumption had a brunt impact in which the world is still repairing today. All the circumstances of the past, good and bad, are what

The Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model by Sue & Sue (2012), is an active example to understand clients’ attitudes and behaviors toward themselves and their culture as well as the culture of others. According to West-Olatunji, Frazier, Guy, Smith, Clay & Breaux (2007), “This model poses the following questions (Sue & Sue, 2003): (a) With whom do you identify and why? (b) What culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? (c) What dominant cultural attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? and (d) How do your current attitudes and beliefs affect your interaction with other culturally diverse clients and people of the dominant culture? Most important, this model allows for investigation of clients ' level of conformity and idealized identification with the dominant culture as well as their rejection of their own culture.”

The case study I have chosen to describe is Sarah, the 24 year old White female who has sought out treatment of anxiety and depression. In the Helms White racial identity development model I have to chosen to apply the Autonomy status of being. Sarah appears to be accepting of her own identity of being white and a lesbian. Sarah and her partner are not hiding their relationship and have “come out” to both of their families and at work. Even though Sarah appears to have successfully graduated college, has a career, and involved in a long term relationship, she has most likely some discrimination and stereotypes herself, given her sexual orientation. The case study does not really take a deep dive into how she feel or identifies as being a white female who is lesbian.

Often times today, people of other racial classes and ethnic groups are experiencing oppression as a marginalized group in society today. Racial biases and culture have become an important issue in mental health due to social constructs, racial stereotypes and racial ideology. As a result, they tend to have an impact human development, racial and cultural identity. Therefore, it has become necessary for counselors to indentify and become fully aware and competent in this area due to the changes our society has undergone in multiculturalism and globalization. Due to cultural diversity, identification of minority groups has led to major breakthrough in the field of multicultural counseling/ therapy (Sue &Sue,2014).

Throughout history social scientists have been trying to examine the different parameters of race in terms of phenotypic characteristics, and cultural behaviors regarding the different groups that society construct’s. legally judges have had different rulings regarding the categorization of different ethnicities and groups within the United States. Many philosophers such as Kwame Appiah, and Scientists such as Dr. James Watson have had opposing arguments on the topic of race and whether it exists or not. In order to do so we need to examine the different definitions of race, and analyze them in order to see how race is a social construct, where people’s notions of race and their interactions with different races determine the way they perceive

Delgado and Stefancic (2011) stated that Critical Race Theory explores how “race, racism, and power intersect to create different circumstances for people of color within society [...] and in postsecondary institutions” (as cited in Quaye, 2013, p. 172). Within the field of higher education, it is important for student affairs professionals to recognize how race permeates all aspects of an individual’s life to fully understand their students’ experiences. Unlike other student development theories, such as Baxter-Magolda’s (2008) self-authorship and Abes, Jones, and McEwen’s (2007) Model of Multiple Identities, CRT places race at the “center of the analysis and assumes that race is omnipresent” in an individual’s life (Quaye, 2013, p. 167).

Racism has, and always has had, a great effect on American society. Still to this day, even after the civil war over slavery in the 19th century and the anti-segregation movements of the 20th century, countless peoples still face ridicule over the color of their skin or the shape of their face. If it were to be taught in schools that judging someone based on their appearance is bad, then perhaps there wouldn’t be such an integration of racism in modern American society. Not simply learning ‘don’t be a racist’ in a high school social studies course while half asleep or thinking of what’s for lunch, but the concept of just how much it can affect someone’s life in such a negative way should be taught to children throughout their whole school careers.

Part I: During the last lecture sessions, Dr. Jendian talked about appreciating diversity, race, ethnicity, and racism. In his lecture, we learned that many people believe that race is something biological. However, the true reality is that race is a social construct and not a biological one. For example, in the documentary Race: The Power of An Illusion, we were able to understand that there are more variations among people in the same “race” than with people from another “race.” However, physical differences, for example, the most obvious skin color, has created prejudices against minority groups. These prejudices that “white” people carry leads to discrimination against people of color. During the lecture, Dr. Jendian explained about ethnocentrism as well. The definition that he provided states that we judge others using our culture’s values, beliefs, and practices. Therefore, we believe the way of doing things is superior, so other people’s ways are inferior. For example, the professor explained that one day he went to a Oaxacan restaurant and that he ate crickets. He explained that for people that don’t have the same culture, this food might be uncommon, however, it is not uncommon for the people of Oaxaca. According to Aguirre and Tuner in their chapter “Ethnicity and Ethnic Relations,” minority groups are single out living on unequal treatment, thus, becoming objects of discrimination. For example, one of the minority groups