Racial/Ethnic Identity

Reading Tatum’s article on Family life and school experiences:  Factors in the racial identity development of black youth in white communities and learning about the different stages of identity development opened my eyes.  I realized first off that identity development is vastly different across racial categories.  While “minority” races have to come to realize that they are minorities and the White race is dominant, White privilege is very much seen and discovered in the White identity model.  Learning about the different case studies of various Black students revealed people of color going through the different stages of identity.  

The case study that most resonated with me from the article in terms of my own experience was that of Janice.  Janice grew up in a mostly White neighborhood and went to a majority White school.  Not until she went to college did she begin to really learn about her Black heritage and history.  This is where she reached the “encounter” stage and began to immerse herself in her Blackness as part of her identity.  While I definitely did not grow up in a majority White neighborhood, (it was majority Black and Hispanic), and I do not relate to her under class and SES, I the middle and high schools that I attended had magnet programs which I was in.  These magnet programs consisted of majority White and Asian students, me being one of the few Blacks.  I had White friends, but we never really did hang out outside of school.  I had Black friends, but was considered an oreo and sometimes even called “stuck-up”.  It was not until people really began to get to know me that the latter of these diminished from being associated with me, but the first never really left.  People would always say that I “talk White” or “too proper”.  I never really understood this and found it strange that in order to be considered Black, I had to talk a certain way, or that Blackness was always associated with using slang and mispronouncing words.  Coming to college and taking AFR courses taught me a lot about Black History that was immensely watered down throughout elementary, middle and high school.  I can say that I have reached the internalization/commitment stage because I have internalized and found a sense of pride and resilience in my Blackness.  This is communicated through my service learning project because we have come up with a model to promote positive ideas for improvement in the Black community in East Austin.  Through this project I feel strongly that we will be able to promote more Black people to get involved in the changes that are being made in the East side and to be proactive about these communities that are being heavily gentrified.  Racist jokes are no longer funny to me, nor am I passive about them as I once was.  Tatum describes in her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, two forms of racism – passive and active.  Active racism is the kind people mostly recognize – the KKK and other White supremacist groups.  Passive racism can be noted in simply sitting back when someone of color is being oppressed, and doing nothing about it at all.  I mentioned racist jokes as an example because even entertaining these jokes, or just sitting back and not calling them out can be seen as an act of racism. 

Stage of racial identity intersects with concepts of privilege because it is a privilege in itself to not have to think about one’s race.  Very early on, children of color notice that they’re different, that there’s something different about them.  White children may not have to grapple with this.  White privilege has an effect on my daily encounters for the simple fact that White people are hold individuality, whereas I hold my entire race on my back.  If I do something off or strange, it is not just another person doing this, it’s “those Black people always do _____”.  As an example, my friend was telling me at dinner today that the majority of her colleagues at work don’t do much, they often just “look busy” but don’t really do anything.  She expressed to me that these people are White, and that she feels that there is no way she could get away with doing the lack of work that they do.  I noted that this was because she is Black, and Black people will always be looked at or watched more closely than our White counterparts.  This is just one example of many where White privilege effects me in my daily life.