Tyler Horstman

African American Psychology

Professor Curits

9 November 2018

White

Everywhere you turn you see white, everywhere you go it’s as if black isn’t allowed. People look

at you in disgust for the “abomination” you are. You aren’t even welcome in your own home,

you’re a stranger in your own neighborhood. The local white woman “security guard” calls the

police on you because you forgot your key in your apartment and it seems as if you’re trying to

break in.

They say you have the freedom to go wherever, be wherever and do whatever but do you

really? White people say you do, Latino people don’t care because they are worried about getting

deported even though they’ve been citizens for over ten years but if you ask an African

American person what it’s like to live in the U.S. in 2018 he might give you the same answer his

grandfather would have gave in the thirties or forties. “I’m fucking scared!!!”.

Try to imagine how scary and sad it has to be to have thought that after 1965 you finally

got rid of that Jim Crow bastard but instead you wake up every morning in 2018 to realize he’s

still here. Imagine waking up and having to tell your kid that they have to constantly look over

their shoulder to make sure they aren’t being followed, to make sure they watch what they say so

it doesn’t sound like they are threatening someone. Imagine telling your child no matter how old

they are to tread carefully because anything they could be doing can seem suspicious or

dangerous to someone. Imagine the fear that young child has to live with every day because they

aren’t old enough to understand why they have to constantly look over their shoulder. Imagine
their confusion when their parent, no I don’t mean parents, tells them that they will soon

understand from experience what they are talking about. Imagine the pain a parent feels when

their child leaves the house for something and you may not know if they will come home in one

piece or if you will have a police officer showing up at your door because your child was gunned

down in the street.

My question is, would we have stepped in during WWII if Hitler aimed his attack toward

the African Americans of Europe? Or would we have just turned a blind eye towards it because

that’s what we were doing as well? We despised Hitler’s notion of the “Superior Race” but isn’t

that what we are still trying to prove today? We were in dismay when our soldiers found the

concentration camps and the conditions they were in but if you compare a picture of a

concentration camp to a picture of the living conditions during slavery I would have to say they

look almost identical. The only difference? The color of the people affected. It took only 6 years

to stop WWII, but it took over 200 years for slavery to be abolished.

We are so quick as a country to jump in and try to fix every other countries problems

instead of our own. It’s as if we use it as an excuse to ignore our problems. It’s as if the

government can use our involvement in other wars as a reason not to get involved in resolving

the racial inequality problem we have all over the U.S. This has led the people to try and come

up with a solution ourselves or at least try to. That’s when the identity crisis comes into effect.

African Americans will do anything to survive in this world, even if it means trying to change

how they are as a person.

There are five stages of identity for an African American. The first one is Pre Encounter,

this is when an African American regents his or her background and tried to be a white person if

you will. They do this for two main reasons, one is for protection. They see how people in power
treat white people and they see how members of society treat white people compared to how they

get treated and that’s what they want. African Americans want to be treated just like everyone

else and they are willing to do what it takes. The other reason an African American may identify

as a white person is because they are told from a young age that black people are less than

compared to white people and they don’t want to be less. So, they reject their black heritage

because they feel ashamed for being black. They feel like they are nothing so because of this

they want to be white, they want to be someone. The second stage of the identity crisis is

Encounter, this is a time in every black person’s life when an event happens to them that makes

them realize they are black. No matter what may happen to an individual this event sparks

something inside their brain and “turns the black back on.” Then and only then can an African

American enter the third stage of identity and immerse themselves back into their “back culture.”

This is when the individual dives head first back into their heritage and relearn what it means to

be an African American. In doing this they start to experience racism in many different shapes

and forms. How they handle this depends on if they enter the fourth stage of identity,

internalization. This is when an African American overcomes all of the hate and all of the

psychological effects that come with racism and develops and strong unbreakable Black identity.

Once African Americans become strong enough to rise above all of the hate nothing can stop

them. Once they reach stage five,Commitment, there lives become better in a sense. They refuse

to be brought down by social oppression and they rise up as a community. Proving once again

that even when being the victims of social oppression, racism, assault, and unfair legal treatment

African Americans are in fact the “Superior Race” for being able to rise above it all and still find

a way to live in today's society