Racial/Ethnic Identity

Having a Biracial background I knew that I came from two different cultural backgrounds and they each had an equal share of importance. Growing up in my household I ate traditional Korean food from my mothers cultural background and she also cooked everyday American foods as well. I was also spoken to in her native language and she also knew english which was the primary language spoken in our home. With my fathers background in the military and growing up near a military base we never really had to talk much about race. I wouldn't put my family completely in the race neutral category because me and my father sometimes had talks about our "blackness," or conversed about race. However I do feel that the environment that I grew up in did not require us to talk about race as much as living in another type of environment may have. Growing up near a military base seeing several culturally different backgrounds was normal which I feel made it easier for me being a black/biracial child growing up in Texas. The closest case study I feel that I can relate to is Karen because she states that she was truly bicultural easily moving back and forth between black and white communities and that her parents were helpful in talking to her in situations that involved race.

I feel stage of racial identity effects concepts of privilege on how it is perceived be the individual. At low stages of racial identities across the board white privilege is kind of invisible to the individual. In white identity they are not confirming or recognizing their privilege, in black identity I feel they are still trying to adjust to who they really are just like biracial identity. The higher you get in every identity model the more visible white privilege becomes and is some what accepted as an unjust factor within our society. The higher racial identity is realized the more an individual is able to view themselves in a positive way and deal with the truths of our society such as "white privilege" in positive ways as well.

I feel white privilege effects me everyday in the sense that I do not have it. I my day to day interactions will never be the same day to day interactions in the life of a white male or white female. I am aware of the difference however I don't let them disable me. I feel that my awareness allows me to better serve in my service learning project in hopes of reaching out to others who may allow the unjust truths about being African American in our society hinder them. I hope to help open the eyes of other people to realize yes there are issues pertaining to race in our society but there are ways to mobilize effectively despite the existence of these issues.