Examples Of Integrative Awareness

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

In 1971, William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., a Black psychologist and prominent researcher (specializing in Black psychology) developed a framework for assessing how black Americans come to understand what it means to be Black. Dr. Cross introduced his ideologies as the “Nigrescence Model of Racial Identity Development“. He asserts that every black American must undergo a series of identity stages to develop a healthy and balanced understanding of the Black experience and become well-rounded in our global society. This model encompasses five stages of identity development, which Dr. Cross emphasizes, must be performed in order to successfully accomplish this goal.

The next stage in the R/CID model is Introspection. The individual begins to discover that this deep seeded hatred of the dominate group is psychologically draining. Moreover, the energy used to hate the dominate group is not conducive to their understanding neither themselves nor their own racial-cultural group. The resistance and immersion stage tends to be a reaction against the dominant culture and is not proactive in allowing the individual to use all energies to discover who or what he or she is. The minority shows concerns for the basis of the self-appreciation. Self-definition in the previous stage tends to be reactive (against White racism), and a need for positive self-definition in a proactive sense emerges.

Identifying the type of racial identity that one person is can be difficult for some people. I became aware of my racial identity when I was still in elementary school. When I was younger my hometown in a racial aspect was generally people of white descendants, but we had neighboring towns that had

After reading through the chapter on the DMIS stages (denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration), I would say that personally, I fall under the “acceptance” stage. “This stage represents an individual’s ability to recognize and appreciate cultural difference in terms of both people’s values and their behavior” (Cushner, McClelland, Safford, Pg. 152). As it states, the individual experiencing acceptance is “beginning to demonstrate the ability to interpret phenomena within a cultural context”, I believe that this is a fitting sentence for myself. Being that I am from a rural prairie town in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma, and the only people where I lived were other Senecas like my family and friends, I did not experience a cultural shock until I was in the sixth grade and had moved to Florida. In this town in Oklahoma, it was rare to even see someone described as “white”, as racial prejudice is still rampant throughout Oklahoma against Natives and basically, everybody who isn’t. I was taught to be accepting and welcoming throughout my life, and I believe that made the transition into a new cultural system much easier.

The Helms White Racial Identity Development Model identifies six racial identity statuses (Sue & Sue, 2016). These statuses include contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion/emersion, and autonomy. Each of these statuses identifies characteristics that individuals in these statuses have. I traveled through theses statuses and believe I am currently in the immersion/emersion status. During different points in the model, I learned about race and myself that allowed me to move through each status, and currently working towards entering autonomy.

There are numerous ways to identify would I am. I am a african american female that is country and loves the outdoors mainly like mud riding . My cultural identity is important it’s part of me . it’s who I am . inside and out . My religion is very important to my family, when I become an adult my religion will pass on to my children. Growing up it made me realize that my cultural is like a oreo hard on the outside and and the inside is thing sweet person filled with joy and happiness .

The peer reviewed article “Ethnic and Racial Identity During Adolescence into Young Adulthood: An Integrated Conceptualization” is a well written article on the struggle that people of color face when coming face to face with their identity in social situations. Umana-Taylor, Quintana, Lee, Cross, Rivas-Drake, Schwartz and Seaton (2014) analyzed ethnic and racial identity or ERI and how it relates to important developments and issues from early childhood well on into young adulthood. They worked to find the most important milestones during the development or ERI as well (Umana-Taylor et. al 2014). This paper will consist of the information given from the article and how I’ve dealt with my own ERI.

“Culture is fluid. Culture is smoke. You breathe it. You eat it. You cant help but hearing it… I am in favor of assimilation. I am not in favor of assimilation. I recognize assimilation” (Rodriguez 143). All in all, I am accepting of the labels society may put on me, for now. I'm growing up in a community that values peoples differences and accepts that we are all American in our own way. Being racially identified is not important to me, I don’t believe it makes me, or anybody else, who there are today.

I always identified myself as Mexican because technically I was mostly Mexican, but I didn’t speak Spanish and was never really accepted by my Spanish speaking peers. I also remember not wanting to be identified as White, I was an American but I didn’t want to be called White. I idolized Martin Luther King Jr. as a young child, and I remember feeling deeply moved and fundamentally changed after seeing the first images of the civil rights movement during Black history month. Then I remember starting to wonder why I always saw the same videos and learned the same lessons each year during February and I began to question things. I remember getting so angry at my own ignorance of the history of racism in this country during my first multi-cultural history class at Cal State Long Beach. I realized how much I wasn’t learning in school and that I never got an authentic version of history from any group other than the dominant White culture. It was an eye opening experience and it had a profound impact on me. I learned to embrace being an American as long as I was willing to commit to continuously questioning and challenging the current power structures in place and work to expose the institutionalized racism that continues to plague our public

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

Another inevitable reaction that came to me when I was reading this text, was the thought of – Who am I? And most importantly – Who can I be that will embrace my identity, while encouraging the diversity of others? The few identities I do own now is that I am a young African American woman, who comes from a low income neighborhood, and who is not necessarily religious but spiritual. I do not think these specific traits changed from when I was younger, however I do think the external groups I associate with have matured through my morals and values. For example, I consider myself a Democratic and a Feminist – due to the experiences I have had and the knowledge I have gained. I

Throughout my life, certain identities have remained consist. And these identities have come to shape my perspectives and my needs and wants within American culture. Typically, my social

While many models exist to describe the phenomenon of ethnic identity, the model in question is the Ethnic Identity Development model proposed by Phinney and Ong in 1992. Their theory contains underpinnings of both Erikson and Marcia and is divided into three stages: Unexamined Ethnic Identity, Moratorium, and Ethnic Identity Achievement. Phinney’s theory rests on the proposal that “individuals begin in a state of indifference, confusion, or minimal awareness about their ethnicity, and move toward more complex, flexible, and informed ways

I would identify myself as White, although my ethnicity is Irish, English, German, and Native American. I was born and raised on the island of Hawaii, which has allowed me to be immersed in a culturally diverse mix of people and practices. This has given me the opportunity to appreciate and value others’ views, values, and beliefs. Other parts of my culture include that I am an only child and I was brought up in a middle-class family that was not religious.