|
Racial Identity Development |
Racial Identity Development and its related schemas is carefully explained in Janet Helm's book Black and White Racial Identity. It is a natural process we seem to go through as we integrate new information and question our assumptions. The racial identity models are based on research on many people's journeys and they help us make sense of our own experiences and development.
You may want to consider your own current level or stage in understanding
(remembering that we cycle/recycle through the levels). As an aid
to understanding I am going to excerpt a few reflections from past student
journals (anonymously, of course) that appear to illustrate each stage.
Most of these quotations were written after the students viewed the film
Skin Deep. I am not going to assign the quotes to stages. You
think about them.
2. Encounter (Something is not OK-- denial, guilt, dissonance, questions,
helping as salve)
3. Immersion/ emersion (I'm OK, I am not sure about you, in fact, I
think
you caused it, and I don't want to have anything to do with you--anger,
denial)
4. Internalization/ Autonomy (I'm OK, You're OK, we have joint work
to do-
constructive solutions, no longer thinking own culture is "normal"
others
"different"-- valuing diversity)
"Have I taken the time to examine my own ethnicity?"
"Why is it so difficult for us to see beyond the color of skin?
It is
just a pigment." (this may be a one or two, think about it, could be
a
four)
"Realizing I do carry some prejudice, but not wanting to admit it."
"It will be my job to create an environment that includes and welcomes
other backgrounds."
"Why people say, 'I understand where you are coming from,' but really
they
don't."
"That other people (in the film) have the same worries as me about
expressing their opinions without being racist or judgemental."
"Why does everything have to be so black and white?"
"God loves a huge rainbow of sinners."
On own classroom, "Can I open their minds before they reach college age?"
"It (the film) hurt my stomach."
"I need to acknowledge that I benefit from racism as a white person--even
if I am not racist."
"Viewpoints need to be expressed and discussed--no matter what they
are--we are all here to learn, change and grow."
"Why does black graduation need to be separate from the normal graduation?
All graduations ceremonies should be one and the same."
"The white folk couldn't express their feeling without others commenting."
"Other races are still blaming white people for what has happened to
them
in the past."
"I never realized that whites still benefit from the past! I never
looked
at it that way."
Most quoted from movie: "What I need you to claim is that you
still
benefit from what happened in the past." "God created us as equal,
but man
made it so we ain't."
Feel free to respond to this material in your journals, in the forum
or
face to face with someone (your discussant).