Having arrived from an integrated high school in a black neighborhood, Brian Allen is startled to find that he is one of few Black students on his university campus. Despite having had many White friends in high school, the discomfort he feels as a minority in college, which he expresses in the 1986 documentary Skin Deep, leads him to surround himself with people of his own race with whom he feels understood. Brian explains, “Coming to a school where there’s not a lot of other minorities, we sort of had to pull together” (Skin Deep, 18:26).
Initially, it is clear that Brian Allen is in the immersion/emersion phase of racial identity development. It is a phase Beverly Daniel Tatum describes in her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, as a period characterized by a, “strong desire to surround oneself with symbols of one’s racial identity, and actively seek out… the support of same-race peers” (Tatum, page 76). Brian presents himself as a young man who, after having encountered both overt and covert racism, feels the need to surround himself with people who share his experiences and can provide him the support he needs as he continues to explore his racial identity.
However, by the end of the documentary
Brian is clearly entering the internalization phase, described by Tatum as a sense of security about one’s racial identity, or a willingness to transcend racial lines and commit to the concerns of one’s racial group (Tatum, 76). Brian’s participation in the documentary itself is a testament to his desire to transcend racial boundaries, and he tells the group on the final night that to combat racism, “you have to interact [with other races]… wake up with the idea that, yo, this has got to end… and don’t believe in the stereotypes” (Skin Deep, 48:30). Brian is a fascinating example of youth navigating and developing racial identity.
Works Cited
Skin Deep. Dir. Fraces Reid. Iris Films, 1986. Videocassette. Trinflix. Trinity College. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
Tatum, Beverly Daniel. “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: And Other Conversations about Race. New York: Basic, 2003. Print.