Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria By Beverly Tatum

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.

A slave once said to himself that he wished he was an animal, “Anything… just to get rid of thinking.” After reading this excerpt, Life of Frederick Douglass, learning more horrid things about slavery, the criminal and unaccepting ways of the enslavers, and the struggles of the slaves, I now know what us “white’s” have done wrong in our history. We treated others of different colors as if they were different, unpleasant to the eyes, or unintelligent — but the one thing we didn 't see in them is that they too, were human.

A color-blind ideology appears to permeate throughout our society drawn from a lack of color consciousness. This is for the reason that it neglects to challenge white privilege by subsisting in a position of race privilege. Reflection of one’s conscious and unconscious belief about race can help to break down existing societal and inevitable racism as opposed to culture or personal ineptitude. Self-reflexivity will also provide assistance with an honest discussion about race and ethnicity being social constructions from attitudes, actions, beliefs, and so on. Ultimately, racial ideologies are consistently subject to change for engaging with the transformation of a particular era’s social conditions at the complexly interconnected levels of

Growing up there were many time where things would happen but I was too young to realize it or even know what was happening. As time went passed thing got better and less noticeable but that is when things normally take a turn for the worse. But most people when looking at me would say he is African American but in reality yes I am partly African American but I am also mixed with Nicaraguan, Italian and Jamaican. So growing up I did not fit in with thee Hispanic kids because I could not speak Spanish and they could so I was always grouped with all the other African American kids. Being placed under a specific group just because the color of my skin and because of the people that I know does not mean that if they do something I am right there

In the 1950’s, racism was at its peak in the US. In the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, he puts himself into a black man’s shoes to experience an everyday life of what it is like being of darker color. He takes it upon himself to seek medical treatment to change the pigmentation of his skin from white to black. After undergoing this treatment, he sets out to New Orleans to begin his life in darker skin. Black Like Me gave me more insight on racism, taught more about the importance of identity, and the arrogance of hypocrisy.

In Black Like Me, there were the blacks and the whites. A man named John Howard Griffin was one of many to want to experience the life of blacks (in the 1950's). Griffin received the courage to "climb into his skin and walk around in it". Now, there were many instances where he was treated differently just because his skin was black. For example, he couldn't use the same bathroom as whites; they had separate faculties. Then, there were many instances when white folks were rude to him; a man told him that he couldn't sit in a public park. To wrap up, you can never really understand someone until you live their

In the book “Black Like Me” by Howard Griffin, a journalist goes through the times of the 1950s where blacks were not treated equally. In this book Griffin turns himself black with chemicals prescribed by a doctor and lives the life of a negro. He then leaves his family, and starts his journal accounts of his negro life. In this book Griffin changes his perspective of how negroes really were, despite what he learned from others. During his journey he faced many hardships, sufferings, and inequalities. Once his journey was over and he published his book which led to many questions raised about how negroes were really treated. This is because Griffin displayed all the unfairness and treatments in his journal and publicized it to the world on what really happened in the South.

In Chapter 5, Racial/ Cultural Minority Identity Development, we are presented with the idea of identity development models. The article provides examples of Black Identity Development Models, Hispanic, Chinese, and Japanese Identity Development Models, Feminist Identity Theory, and the Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model. This chapter explains how “Asian Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians have experienced sociopolitical identity transformations so that a Third World Consciousness has emerged, with a cultural oppression as the common unifying force” (Sue, 2006).

Previous to reading this book, trying to understand the black experience was like trying to understand my 8th grade French teacher. She spoke to us in foreign words that I subconsciously translated into English

At around the age of 4, I was the only one from my immediate family that was born here in the United states at the time. I have this clear memory of being in the car with my family, and my siblings were making fun of me because I am American, that I wasn 't Mexican like them. I felt embarrassed and wanted to be Mexican so bad like them. I never noticed race as a thing before, until my own siblings pointed it out. It just became more obvious to me over time. Then the concept of racism was taught to me and it was a whole other concept to understand.

Hurston’s anecdotes of how she became colored support Steele’s argument on identity contingencies. In the beginning of Steele’s book Whistling Vivaldi, he depicts an experience he had during his childhood, when he began to recognize the existence of discrimination, “I have a memory of the first time I realized I was black. I learned that we ‘black’ kids couldn’t swim at the pool in our area park, except on Wednesday afternoons…We could be regular people but only in the middle of the week? This is how I became aware I was black. I didn’t know what being black meant, but I was getting the idea that it was a big deal,” (Steele 1-2). Here Steele displays an anticipated observation on how segregation was viewed during that time, and how people

In high school, I was called “white” by the majority of the African American students in a high school of nearly 2000 students in the Southeast of Houston because of the way I talk. Initially, when they said this to me I was shocked they’ve never heard an African American speak educated. I had been on the receiving end of racially charged comments by white peers at my job, and now I had to deal with this from my own race and ethnicity, too? I wondered why I could not catch a break. I remained confused but focused

Talking about race is important because although it may scientifically just be a social construct it race ha real effects. Historically race and Racal stereotypes have been used to justify inequality, and mistreatment of entire communities of people, this is especially prevalent in America both historically and contemporarily. Coming from

Where did your parents grow up? What exposure did they have to racial groups other than their own? (Have you ever talked with them about this?)

I can remember when I was little and asking mom why I didn’t tan as dark as the other kids in the neighborhood and mom sitting us down and explaining to us that we were white and all the neighborhood kids were black. My response was oh so my skin won’t get that dark, and being sad because I wanted to be like the rest of the kids. A lot of the time we lived down there my twin sister and I were the only white kids in our grade at school and our family was the only white family on the block. We never minded because mom had taught us that it didn’t matter what your skin color was or what God you believed in it only matter how you acted and how you treated others. We didn’t even know what racism was until the 4th grade. I was the only white child in the class, Mrs. Young was black and didn’t like me because I was white, which she told me repeatedly. She even failed me in spelling because she said she couldn’t read my “white girl scribbles”. After that I thought racism was something between blacks and whites. Then later that year I came home from school confused and upset about the new boy at school. I didn’t understand why everyone was calling him an “Oreo” and that I was the only one that would play with him at recess. My mom explained it to me that one of his parents was white and the other was black. I didn’t realize that there is people that are against being bi