Individual Critical Analysis Paper

Submitted By lmorg11
Words: 2646
Pages: 11

Laura Morgan
Psychological Effects of Racism
Professor Ermitte Saint Jacques
December 14, 2014

Individual Critical Analysis Paper

Throughout this course, my understanding of race, racism, privilege and self-identity skyrocketed. I have learned an immense amount and am eager to take this new insight with me forward in life and instill it in my children from the very start. Though I had a wonderful childhood, which I know now white privilege attributed to, I realize now that there are things I would like my children to be aware of and learn that I did not. I want them to continue to be part of the change that this society is crying out for. Throughout this course, I really got an understanding of how a child goes through their self-identity process, as well as was able to go through my own racial identity process to an extent. I hope that a combination of my personal experiences and the abundance of knowledge that the readings and teachings of this course have brought me will allow me to help guide my children through their racial identity search and becoming a positive voice towards change starting at a very young age. Looking back, I can’t say I have a strong memory of being explained skin colors or race. As my child begins experiencing the world and reaches the age of the never ending questions, I hope to be able to address any questions they may ask in regards to race and skin color. I don’t want to brush off any opportunity that is presented to talk about race with them and to make a positive influence in their thinking on this topic. This course has reminded us that it’s important to aim for being color conscious instead of color blind. It’s important to recognize the struggles that racism brings to people, not to pretend they don’t exist. My child will be raised to see and understand these struggles and be reminded to help find ways to change this unequal balance in life. They will be color conscious, never color blind. In a newsletter from the University of Texas at Austin reporting on a study about white children learning about racism and how it affected their attitude towards people of color it states, “Both white and black children who learned about racism were more likely to value racial fairness and to express greater satisfaction with the lesson. White children whose lessons included information on discrimination showed more defensiveness, had more racial guilt (if they were older than 7) and were less likely to accept stereotypical views about African Americans.” It displays that children will absorb what they are learning and will recognize that there are issues. It opens the door for me and my child to have discussions about racism, the problems associated with it and what they can do to make a difference in changing it. Striving to have age-appropriate, responses and explanations to racially based questions that a young child is likely to have, such as my child asking why another child “looks dirty” or has a different skin color, is something that’s really important to me. I want to be able to teach them that we’re all different and it’s just like how we have different hair colors or eye colors. It’s what makes us individuals and it’s a great thing. It’s important to not push off these conversations until their older, children understand a lot and are easily influenced by the world around them, so by being a strong voice for my in a world of influences I can help them understand and have the right viewpoints on these issues. I think it’s also important that as a child grows and their understanding and intelligence grows, to explain why certain things they may get are attributed to white privilege and explain how this affects others. Throughout my entire schooling experience, kindergarten through senior year of college, academics have been one of the most important and stressed aspects of my life. My parents always have pushed me to strive for academic excellence and this is something that I fully