The Importance Of Racial Identity

Multicultural education is the key to incorporating ethnic and racial identities in the classroom. I believe implementing a culturally responsive curriculum would work best for the students. I would like to be a future educator who acknowledges and welcome my students’ diversity in the classroom. It is important to bring cultural awareness to the classroom and school environment. I want my students to know that I respect, acknowledge and care about their differences. I would model this behavior because I want the students to do the same for each other. The steps I would take incorporate a positive, trusting and healthy learning environment are:

Our student population is comprised of students from across the city, both inside of our school’s neighborhood community and far outside. Our students are largely commuters who come from the far south sides and far west sides of the city. Due to this, we are fortunate to have a student body with diverse experiences, backgrounds, familial structures, and histories. Currently, our student body is 70% Black, 25% Hispanic, and 5% White and Asian.

James McBride can tell you firsthand about man verse racial identity. Journalizing his experience in his New York Times Bestseller novel the Color of Water simply outlined his struggles of finding who he was. His upbringing included a black father and a Jewish white mother. His background made it hard for him to understand why his home was different than others on the street. Although McBride experience shows an older outtake of racial identity, some may say this still is a problem today. Offspring feels the need to pick a race in society to succeed in the generation and it may be the step to understands them more. Notice in the subtitle of the book "A black Men tribute to his white mother" he label himself as just black as if there was a barrier between his mother and himself because the so different. Today we need to not let racial identity become a big part of our lives.

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.

Meet Rachel, a sophomore studying at Howard University who is also mixed with both black and white. Rachel transferred to the Historically Black University from a Predominantly White Institution because she felt as though she was not “white enough” and Howard would better suit her. Unfortunately upon her arrival, Rachel could not help but feel as though she was not “black enough” to attend Howard University. Rachel’s feeling of not belonging are not isolated, they are shared by millions of biracial Americans who, at one time or another, felt as though they did not belong to either culture. These feelings have been brought on, over time, by the way, America, although believed to be a “melting pot” of cultures, often wants people to categorize themselves as one ethnicity and the pressure placed on Americans to solely identify with one race divides the country more than anything else. The only way to rectify this problem is for Americans to stop separating themselves into racial categories and come together to be classified as simply American.

While reading Recitatif, by Toni Morrison, there was racial identity between the main characters Roberta and Twyla. They are both different races. Throughout the story, both characters are increasingly changing. This does not help the readers figure out the race of each girl. They could be either white or black but they have many different traits. In the beginning of the story, it seems like Roberta was a black girl and Twyla was a white girl. There was tension between the two girls. Roberta and Twyla had to share a room together. Twyla felt sick that she must share a room with a girl that’s a different race. In the story, there was some tension towards black people. Twyla’s mom had told her that Roberta’s race never washed their hair and they

Understanding this will help one realize how they are. In the article, ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ Obama mentions a girl name Joyce from college who was part Italian, part French and part Native American and states her struggle with people trying to label her. “I’m not Black… I’m multiracial… Why should I have to choose between them? …They’re the ones who are telling me I can’t be who I am.” (Smith, 2008) In this quote, Joyce tells that she is multiracial, meaning she is accepting all roots. When she says that people are trying to tell her she can’t be who she is, she is not agreeing to make others comfortable. However there are also people that do not want to accept their roots, specifically their genetics. In the previous article, ‘DNA rewrites history for African-Americans,’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not want to embrace the fact that he was 50% white and 50% black. ““I’ll never see my family tree in quite the same way,” Gates says on the PBS show program, “I have the blues. Can I still have the blues?”” (Willing, 2006) After discovering his true heritage, Gates did not want to accept his ‘new’ identity, but instead rejects it, unlike Joyce. When he denies his identity it only hurts him because he does not recognize his entire

The main purpose of the paper was to reflect the changes in the racial identity development during the course of history. The assignment was aimed to achieve several tasks: to analyze the impressions and responses to the interview; to trace back the causes of the negative reactions on some questions; to reflect the story of the Racial Identity Development, as well as elaborate the ways of racism confrontation within and outside oneself.

Racial identity (passing) alludes to an individual considered a part of one racial assembly additionally acknowledged as a part of an alternate racial gathering. The term was utilized particularly as a part of the U.S. to portray an individual of blended race legacy acclimatizing into the white larger part throughout times when lawful and social meetings of hypo descent arranged the individual as a minority, subject to racial isolation and segregation (Smedley).

Identifying with race in my opinion is synonymous with accepting yourself and accepting community responsibility of productivity, positivity, and pride. Race matters. Especially in my life. I identify as African American but nowadays if I don’t listen to the latest rap, have a loud personality, or I’m not failing my classes, my fellow African American peers will see me as trying to be white or better than they are.

There are 5 stages in which people of color developing racial identity, Pre Encounter, Encounter, Immersion/Emersion, Internalization, and Internalization-Commitment. Pre Encounter stage when developing racial identity, is when an individual tries to incorporate and assimilate to whites, and will often distances themselves with others of their own race. Those in this stage have negative public regard and can not dissociate the negative stereotypes that have been placed on their race and held standard and the fact that they or others can differentiate those stereotypes

Having a black father and a white mother has always had some family members question my kinship to them. The older I got, the more my identification became reliant on one aspect of myself over the other. The African-American part of me became suspect in the eyes of certain family members with no real comprehension on my part as of why. I saw ignorance towards my whiteness, not only within society but within my own family, which resulted in the inability to perceive my blackness.

Biracial groups intake a lot of hardship because they are of multiple races. Being in a society that is predominately one race or another will cause many disadvantages, especially those that fall under the category of socialization and communication. Being social means that someone can comfortably communicate or relate to someone else or a group of people. It also means that one can speak and express him or herself without hesitation or fear. Typically, people gravitate towards others who look the same or act the same as they do when being social. In this case, being biracial most likely means that they do not look or possibly even act the same as those who surround them. That leaves them to feel unwanted, unusual, and unaccepted. Someone who feels out of place will take on many disadvantages when surrounded by an on-going environment. Biracials attain disadvantages when trying to relate or communicate with a uni- racial group or community.

I believe that being apart of a racial minority or in a lower social status does influence your health and longevity. I think that this can largely be attributed to the jobs that these people have and what type of income they make. As someone who usually always eat healthy, I have noticed the price differences between healthy food and unhealthier fast food. Buying healthy nutritious groceries at a store is a lot more expensive than buying fast food. The association can be made because people, who are just barely making ends meet with their money, are more inclined to try and cut costs with food. I feel that stereotyping can play a role in how socioeconomic status and race interact with each other. This leads to only

“If we don’t fully understand our individual and collective roles in maintaining a system of white superiority, our relationships with people of color remains superficial, our ability to work in diverse workplaces is greatly diminished, and we fail to create a just world in which everyone has an equitable opportunity to contribute and thrive” (Kendall, 2013, p. 1). This paper discusses who I am as a cultural person and how I have come to be this way. The first section of this paper discusses my cultural background and my cultural identity. I address the factors that make up my cultural identity and the challenges that I have faced because of my cultural identity. The next section discusses my White racial identity development and the events in my life that have led me to become the person I am today in relation to my racial identity. The final section of this paper outlines the implications my own racial and cultural identity will have on my career as a clinical mental health counselor.