Identity Based Motivation : Implications For Health And Health Disparities

Adolescence can be the most crucial part of a person’s development. It is the time of transition into adulthood. The experiences gathered this time of a person’s life have lasting effects that linger long into adulthood. Proper guidance and support during this time is a person’s life is essential to ensuring that the person is able to become a successful adult in society. However, many African-American youth are lacking this type of support and guidance during this critical stage in life. Disproportionately some African American male adolescents aren’t provided proper mechanisms for their transition to manhood. Some sociologists believe that the lack of a rites of

The institutional and cultural influences that generate these ideas of privilege and oppression are derived from the cycle of socialization. Before children are even able to comprehend what race is, the cycle of socialization is already shaping their views on society and social identities. Bobbie Harro illustrates the cycle of socialization by stating, “the socialization process is pervasive, consistent, circular, self-perpetuating and often invisible” (41). This makes the cycle extremely influential for the creation of our social identities in our society. In my personal experience, I vividly remember my parents taking extra precautious in poor black communities when I was younger to ensure my safety. Although their only intention was to promote my wellbeing, indirectly they established the notion that poor black people are dangerous. Obviously it’s erroneous to claim all black people are dangerous, but this is evidence of the beginning stages of the cycle of socialization taking action.

There was a time when America was segregated; Caucasians and African Americans were forced to attend different restrooms, restaurants, and water fountains. However, the era of segregation has been terminated; now America embraces and appreciates the various cultures and ethnicities that create this melting pot several people call home. Likewise, it is this melting pot, or mosaic, of races that multitudes of individuals have identified themselves with. Thus, race and ethnicity does matter for it portrays vital and crucial roles in the contemporary American society. Furthermore, ethnicity and race brings communities together in unity, determines which traditions and ideals individuals may choose to value, and imposes an impediment for it categorizes humans unjustly.

Race and gender are two facets that inherently dominate individuals everyday lives. A person’s social environment, work environment, and educational environment is congruent to their race and gender. From birth, it has been set up that everyone is assigned to a label. A pink or blue blanket is swaddled around a newborn child and a box is checked signifying that child’s place in society. These two actions ultimately define how a child is to be viewed and treated. As children grow into young adults they either decide to stick with their original assignment, while others decide to deviate from it. These individuals deviation results in many of them being viewed harshly and looked down upon because they strayed from their social norms. This constant cycle of being classified and labeled from birth is the social institution of gender and race. These social institutions aid in the inequality that is present in society, and race and gender are shaped by this. However, if these social institutions were removed, race and gender could dissipate. This is due to the fact that race and gender are not real, but are socially constructed concepts used to organize the power, or dominance, within our society to one social group over the other groups.

African American males who live in poverty are the most vulnerable and oppressed population in society. Since the first slave ship set sail from Africa with hundreds of Blacks in tow headed to America, black have endured the worst treatment of any one individual race in America. Slavery lasted over three hundred years and has been illegal since 1865. However the underlying effects of slavery continue to plague Black males in society. In our modern day society there are still underlying racial injustices. Black males are racially oppressed in educational setting as they have the lowest high school graduation rates than that of any other race. Black males are racially profiled by law enforcement and are represented in prisons and jails than their white counterparts. Once Black males have paid their debts to society, their criminal records place them at higher risk of becoming underemployed or unemployed. If the American Dream is promise to all U.S. citizens then structural changes are needed to assure their survival. I believe empowering Black males using the Strength Based Perspective helps to identify individual, family and personal strengths in effective problem solving and application of the Critical Race Theory helps practitioners to understand the core issues of oppressive barriers throughout the lifespan.

Prideful Black identity socialization, per Allen (2015), is an essential element of success and resilience. Researchers have created, recreated, and scrutinized many Black identity models, but William Cross’ (1971, 2001) theory is regarded as the most accurate and beneficial (Constantine, 1998). Cross created a Black identity development model that observes three patterns (Cross et al., 2001). First, Nigrescence pattern A is the process by which individuals have formative Black socialization experiences throughout their lives. Next, Nigrescence pattern B is the process by which individuals who were not socialized toward Blackness, or those who do not have a healthy Black identity

The African-American community has endured a notable amount of troublesome tribulations, primarily in cultural identity. The wide array of challenges that minorities undergo when classifying a specific race is illogical, and rather insane. The struggle, hassle, and strain placed on minorities for embracing their identity will continuously be stereotyped or judged by a non-oppressed individual, or better yet our modern society. The ongoing list of imperfections a minority is labeled with when classifying their race, ensures being a minority is an undesirable feature or demographic. African-Americans constantly receives disapproval and hatred, along with a long record of wrong-doings that have been done to people of color. Generally, the outward appearance of an individual of color could possibly suffer from racial profiling, mass incarceration, brutality, police brutality, and exploitation inequalities. The negative suppositions, hypotheses, and assumptions that African-American people group receive, is essentially outstanding as prejudice.

On January 26, we attended Rob Jager’s presentation on “civic development among black youth: toward an integrity-based research agenda”. Throughout the presentation, Jager presented many key concepts like integrity-based perspective, strands, types of citizenship, oppression, social justice, civic engagement, cultural considerations, etc. In addition to these conceptual groundings, he presented samples from basic and applied research work. Some of these samples from basic research work were Black Youth Project Youth Culture Survey and 3D Project (CSBYC). In the Black Youth Project Youth Culture Survey, there were 634 black youth ranging from ages of 15 to 24, which undergo political cynicism, institutional racial discrimination, political

Throughout the world, society habitually puts every group into multiple categories. Those groups can vary from gender, to race, to religion, while those categories can fluctuate from what society believes each group is supposed to act by. This method is often referred to as stereotyping, which is a widely held label that each particular group follows in society’s eyes. Though many groups in society have stereotypes, the African American race has numerous. Though the way of living for African Americans have changed throughout time, the stereotypes from the past still haunt us today. Based off of societies stereotypes of the African American race, commonly known as “blacks”, each subgroup of this race reacts differently toward the stereotypes.

I also learned that when young African American individuals have a higher amount of quality connections to others, it lessens their inability to succeed in school and actually enhances their ability to achieve success. Furthermore, when there is a strong connection between an individual and their identification with their race or ethnicity, it promotes a greater sense of self-worth and leads to a better possibility of achieving academically and securing a job later in life. When African American individuals experience discrimination, it negatively impacts their ability to function in school and diminishes their sense of self-worth and quality of life, which inhibits them from experiencing positive outcomes in life. Lastly, these negative outcomes described above are combatted when individuals feel as though they have some influence on creating an environment of equality and justice within

Marc Mauer begins his lecture by introducing the topic of racial disparities in the 21st century and discusses where they originated from. In addition, to how we can address these situations, and bring some form of clarity to this subject matter. Mauer shares the first story of his friend and his wife's teenage son and how “their teenage son started being a teenage son” (Mauer, 2011). His friend's son started staying out late at night, his grades in school were declining, and he was possibly drinking and using drugs. Shortly after that, he was arrested for stealing from a convenience store.

Many people live their life without realizing how much of their neighborhood they carry with them everyday. We also don't realize the fact that no matter the place we find ourselves in we act just the way we would if we were in our own neighborhood. Each neighborhood is unique in their own because they each carry either own set of beliefs, perspectives, and ideas that ultimately impact the decisions we make in the future. Along with our neighborhood shaping us, aging, maturing, memories, and past experiences are also factors that impact our identities. Although there are multiple factors that end up impacting our identity for the most part the type of neighborhood in which we grow up in is the primary factor that shapes our identity.

In the article, the author studied the connection between the racial identity of 165 African American college students with the inclusion of the variables of parental attachment and familial communalism. College students from the southern and eastern regions of the United States who grew up in two-parent homes with a higher median income than those of the average African American household were the population selected in for the study. There has a been a new emphases in understanding the development of individuals as it relates to the racial group that they identify with since the civil rights moment. Racial identity statuses have successfully been connected to predict the self-esteem of African American college students (Brown, 2013, p108-109). The aim of the study was to distinguish if using the Cross Model with two variables would produce more impactful results than those from previous research that used only one isolated variable. The article proposed that the method through which African American people develop racial attitudes and behaviors is through socialization. Social bonds are at the heart of African American culture. The African American community is built on the good of the group, not the well-being of the individual. Likewise, attachment relationships are important in predicting things such as adjustment, psychological well-being, and self-identity (Brown, 2013, p111). The author of the study recruited 165 African American college students from various

Personally I think identity does not help to create prejudice, it also does not help to erase prejudice. For prejudice is just an opinion that human creating to show the personal altitude involves the one way appreciation. More precise, prejudice is often use to describe thinking, perspectives are not favorable, subjective evaluation to individuals or a group of people, because of gender, political views, social relationships, age, religion, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, appearance or other personal characteristics, which at last leads to discrimination. Or in order words, prejudice is created for discrimination. So why do we have to suffer prejudice is just because of our identity? Whoever was born in this life all are desired to

The following paper will discuss two of the major dimensions of my cultural identity, and analyze the way in which my identity holds privileges, or has exposed me to oppression. Being that I am white, I have lived a life of privilege simply because of the color of my skin. I have been afforded opportunities, and lived a life free from persecution due to my skin color. I have also lived a life that has been impacted by oppression because of my female identity. This unique position between privilege and oppression is where I live my life.