The Five Stages Of Racial Identity

magine growing up in a racially diverse community and going to school with classmates of different skin colors; Black and White. As a child, one might not notice or pay attention to the difference, but as people grow, they begin to notice changes and apprehend more complex ideas. More specifically, White students aren 't able to perceive the same stereotypes that Blacks do, thus creating isolation between the two races. Growing up in Oskaloosa didn 't allow me to have much exposure or personal experience with Black classmates, so I 've never had the opportunity to think about how Black people feel about the standard idea White people have developed of them. The question “why are the Black kids sitting together?” (Tatum 213) makes people question …show more content…
Therefore, Black children are only shown the typical lifestyles of the White people around them, and they begin to think less of their own culture and background, putting Whites above themselves. Developing these thoughts often initiate in junior high school. Youth minds are still growing and trying to understand the concept of people seeing them for the color of their skin, which then sets stereotypes about how others expect Black people to act. At school, Black students ' education is taken less seriously than White children because of racial grouping. In elementary school, children don 't care about the color of one 's skin and they just want to play with other people. However, beginning in middle school, Blacks and Whites start to isolate themselves from the opposite race, leading to segregation. The most common of the stereotypes of a Black person includes being “handcuffed and arrested for a crime allows people to look at adolescent Blacks with fear and suspicion” (Tatum 216). These stereotypes create false images of who someone may be on the inside just because of the color of their skin on the outside. The stages of racial identity development encourage young Blacks to find out more about themselves and their racial background. It begins with pre-encounter- learning about the beliefs and values of their culture- and eventually leads to internalization-commitment. Throughout this series of developments, they will encounter many situations in which case causes them to question who they really are. The last stage is when the Black youth begin to embrace their racial identity and accept that they are different and they deserve to be treated the same as white