Miller, David B. "Racial Socialization And Racial Identity: Can They Promote Resiliency For African American Adolescents?." Adolescence 135 (1999): Science In Context. Web. 15 Oct. 2016.
For this journal entry, I researched the question "What can the division within a racial group tell us about the way a race goes about student activist activities and the tensions it may cause?" I came across this article about racial socialization and racial identity to see if it would mention ideas that could be related back to the concept of moderate blackness. Before reading this article I was interested in the fact that the author chose to focus on African American adolescents because I am relating all of my research back to Concerned Student 1950, a group that is made of adolescents and young adults.
The article focuses on the ways racial socialization and racial identity can promote resiliency for African American adolescents. Resiliency is defined many ways, but the one definition that sums them all up is "the ability to bounce back, recover, or form a successful adaptation in the face of obstacles and adversity." The author points out that it is hard to limit the amount of stress that individuals experience, especially those from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds. I was able to relate this back to African American students at Mizzou. Some but not all may face financially struggling times because of tuition and other college expenses and then are socially disadvantaged because of the lack of diversity on campus. Racial socialization is defined as the "tasks Black parents share with all parents - providing for and raising children... but they include the responsibility of raising physically and emotionally healthy children who are black in a society in which being black has negative connotations." It is also described in "terms of personal and group identity, intergroup and interindividual relationships, and position in the social hierarchy." I would like to go back a minute to the definition that talks about black parents responsibility of raising children to know that it's okay to be black in a society that sees otherwise. The author addresses the responsibility of the parents, but what about the role schools play in their development of racial socialization and racial identity. As children grow up, they spend just as much time with teachers and faculty at their school as with their parents. I believe that teachers and faculty play an important role in a child's development and knowledge about racial issues and that should not go unaddressed. The idea of how a strong racial identity can make dealing with stress easier and overcoming negative social stereotypes. I personally don't agree with this idea because I feel that no matter how comfortable you are in your skin and with your racial identity, it's still going to put a burden in your life. Relating it back to the Mizzou protests, it could cause even more stress because their way of overcoming the negative stereotypes was to protest about it and stage all of these presentations and hunger strikes. With this, it takes away from their study time and time to do homework, therefore the stress of school is added on to the stress to fit into their environment. The author introduces a theoretical perspective that brings up the development of a couple character traits. Depreciated and transcendent character. Depreciated character is when a "sense of worthlessness, inadequacy, and impotence is incorporated into the extrinsically imposed devaluation of self. This type of individual is likely to turn away from or against social institutions." The transcendent character is when there is more optimism. The individual seeks to overcome environmental adversity, nevertheless, this individual may experience alienation from other group members fostering depreciated character." I thought I may be able to relate this back to the concept of moderate blackness. What can these different character traits tell us about the way some students choose to protest.
This source made me think about how talking about race in social situations can affect resiliency and racial identity and socialization among the African American community.
This source speaks to my other sources because it talks about how racial identity and racial socialization can take away the stress of the negative stereotypes. This can be related back to structural violence. Having a stronger sense of racial identity can take away from the stresses felt through structural violence.
For my next journal entry i will research how discussions about race can affect student activism in higher education.
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