Ethnic Minority Development of a Black Male

Felicia McCaw
Adolescent Psychology
Ethnic Minority Development of a Black Male
December 1, 2010


Ethnic Minority Development of a Black Male


One of the most unusual aspects of determining of what it takes to be a Black Male in the society of today is how does a young man determine his place in this world among the diverse cultures of today’s society. According to Phinney there is a three-stage model of ethnic identity development that assists in the development of an Eriksonnian ego which serves as a foundation and plateau for development as a young black male matures into manhood. Unfortunately, life as a black male is not a clear formatted spreadsheet where you can consistently going from one step to another each male rites of passage into manhood is different sometimes horrific, tragic, and unbelievable when someone from a more stable background looks or peers into their lives and wish to hurriedly back away in shock, horror and clear non-accepantance of not wanting to live or step into that young man’s shoes and feel the lack of hope clearly portrayed as each young man evolves and tries to merges into society with the severe lack of skills that they need to survive and norms and values that society demands they have.

How to resolve these issues is clearly a problem of society and the parents’ lack of understanding of how to relay to their children of what is normal and what is not. It is not an issue that I would like to tackle due to the sheer non-acceptance of what young men perceive as a threat to their manhood and the own ethnic identity and perception of what and who they are. Life as a black citizen is not simple – it is fraught with many facets of humiliation and troubling stereotypes which some people are trying to expand and take advantage of and encourage to the detriment of black people and black males and females in this populace. I have noticed many troubling and discouraging facets of other races who perceive themselves as better, more evolved, more enlightened and although I acknowledge that these people are able to assimilate information by memorization it does not make these people better or a black male as inferior.

Further most black males do not have anyone to encourage good, stable self-esteem or anyone to provide emotional support and social approval, foster achievement and help them develop or nurture them to learn to cope in today’s society to accept the norms as they stand and merge peacefully and productively into society as an asset and pass this better rite of passage to their sons and daughters to enable their success in this world.

Consequently in order to establish who you are as a ethnic minority you have to know that there is a place in this world for you and establish clear cut plans of actions that affect you morally, physically, honorably and always keep your dignity as a man of color with pride and honor of who you are.

Bibliography



Adolescence, Thirteenth Edition, John W. Santrock
http://www.ke5ter.com/archives/2010/05/07/ethnic-minority-development-and-asian-american-identity-development-models