Racial Identification Reflection
Racial identity is the unique complexion of the skin that human beings can be associated with, including the ethnic backgrounds and social settings based on the culture, such as language and style. Child development also has some aspects of racial identity because, at six months, children can find skin color and gender differences to be interesting factors (Zucker & Patterson, 2018). When a child is growing, they can get influenced such as prevailing stereotypes, feelings, and ideas based on racial affiliation. This paper reflects on racial identity based on Personal experiences and understanding of literature focusing on child and adolescent development.
Understanding of Concepts and Reflection on Racial Identity in Child Adolescent Development
In a classroom, it is possible to find many races because learners may be from different backgrounds in life. An adolescent group in child development is a critical stage as it influences the way children to grow up knowing human anatomy issues. There is what is referred to as the solidification of attitudes where at this point, children’s racial attitudes may stay constant unless there is a major change that will make them rethink their beliefs (Crosby & Bergin, 2019). In adolescence also, children can see the role of social and economic structure and also the opportunities that present themselves in life. Thus, there is a likelihood that children will be able to justify some inequalities by alleging that poor people get what they deserve, among other utterances (Crosby & Bergin, 2019). For example, in our class, we had both white and people of color; most of the time, the white learners associated failure with black learners.
Through my understanding of ethnic and racial identity, some matters have been revealed to me through experience. When I was growing up, ethnic profiling developed in my adolescence to a notable extent. I believe what was known to me when I was young has an impact today, and it might influence the next generation that will come after me. Today, the media is one of the factors that has enabled children to be aware of racial issues through the mass popularization of ethnic and racial differences (Mirpuri & Yip, 2017). The literature and the current events affect how children see races, and that is a typical way of understanding racial identity.
While in elementary school, I observed that whenever our class had a skit to present during symposiums, the antagonist character was mostly given to the black learners. The issue was derived from the media ideologies that African Americans were linked with negative occasions in life (Crosby & Bergin, 2019). Though that feeling and attitude change in the future depending on the level of exposure that one has after getting to adulthood, it appears to be kind of a bug when it comes to racial discrimination and stereotypes.
I have observed that there are racial identity statuses that a young learner may experience more so at the adolescent level. First is the pre-encounter stage, where a young person may not be consciously aware of the way their race affects their daily life. The second stage is the encounter whereby adolescents have provocations, especially negative experiences that are related to their race (Mirpuri & Yip, 2017). The next status is immersion which means the children reach a point whereby they can confront racial identity through major explorations in life. Based on my personal life, this stage made me have a diverse opinion concerning interaction with other races.
In my adolescence, I had the assumption that group discussions are supposed to be categorized based on the racial affiliation of the pupils. The last status that most learners have in racial identity is internalization and commitment (Zucker & Patterson, 2018). Here, children usually start developing a concrete secure sense of racial identity, and it means they can comfortably socialize with the other racial groups that are available within reach. At this stage, my conscience started changing in that I took everyone with equal attention and refrained from despising people due to their identity in terms of race.
References
Crosby, B. C. A., & Bergin, D. A. (2019). Child and adolescent development in your classroom: Chronological approach. Cengage.
Mirpuri, S., & Yip, T. (2017). Intergroup contact and ethnic/racial identity development. The Wiley Handbook of Group Processes in Children and Adolescents, 5(12), 47–66. Web.
Zucker, J. K., & Patterson, M. M. (2018). Racial socialization practices among white American parents: Relations to racial attitudes, racial identity, and school diversity. Journal of Family Issues, 39(16), 3903–3930. Web.