Racial/Ethnic Identity

I believe that stage of race identity intercepts with the concept of privilege through the encounters whites and African Americans have and how they differ. It’s a good assumption that in today’s society that race is still a big issue and something that affects many. The Trayvon Martin case is an example of race and its prevalence. White Racial Identity Model explains privilege regarding contact status, whites deny race as important in society and prefer to themselves as “color blind.” If you have never had a problem in school or at your job because of the color of your skin it’s no surprise to regard race as non factor.  

In regards to my daily encounter, white privilege is something I notice often. Having several classes were I am the only minority, it’s something I notice but a white person never has to think about. I also thing African Americans are caution when approaching other minorities and the way we think about them because of African Americans History. One point that came up in regards to the Trayvon martin case was that it would be hard to imagine an African American man/woman taking the same actions as Zimmerman. Regardless of where you might fall in the People of Color Identity Model, there is an understanding of African American oppression that it would be hard to relay the same hatred on to others.

In regards to the learning group project, we have to be open to encountering people in different stages and like we talked about in class we can’t change a set way of thinking, but we can let facts and actions speak for themselves. From the Beverly Tatum’s article Family life and school experiences: Factors in the racial identity development of black youth in white communities Tatum states that the student that had some kind of encounter with someone who was proud and educated in Black history, it had a positive impact in the way the students thought about their own culture. We can hope for our learning project that we can in some way be a positive role model to those we encounter.