SOWK 602-One Crazy Summer
SOWK 602-One Crazy Summer
Critical Race Reflection Using One Crazy Summer.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is a novel that tells the story of three sisters who arrived in Oakland in 1968, during the peak of the Black Power Movement in Brooklyn. Their experiences with their mother and the community at the time reveal the themes of racial identity, family dynamics, and the political climate of the time. The other issue that has been brought up in the story that is important is how identity and self-definition are shaped by family, culture and society. This paper, in the frameworks of William E. Cross Jr. and Nancy Boyd-Franklin, reflects on racial identity, family and community experiences during the period of the Civil Rights movement and the role of race, gender and power in the formation of social life.
Self-Described Racial Identity
The five stages of African American Identity described by Cross can be applied to understand the development process of racial identity (Cross, 1978). These phases consist of Pre-Encounter, Encounter, Immersion-Emersion, Internalization and Internalization-Commitment. All stages represent the way people learn and appreciate their racial identity in a larger social setup. The theory describes how identity growth usually takes place through experiences that disorient the earlier knowledge of race and culture of a person.
The Internalization level is especially useful in my own perception of racial identity. At this level, people are able to have a safe and good perception of their racial identity. They acknowledge the importance of their cultural background and simultaneously embrace diversity in society. This phase goes beyond race war or racial confusion to self-acceptance and cultural pride. The concept of internalization also highlights the need to learn the historical experiences and struggles of the community.
Boyd-Franklin (2003) gives additional illumination on the importance of racial identity in family circles. She explains how African American families are likely to build a solid support network due to their past social inequality and discrimination. Family relationships thereby become a very crucial source of strength and identity formation. This point of view emphasizes the fact that identity is not an individualized phenomenon but a collective one, which is produced by the family and community. The identity formation in the One Crazy Summer does not only depend on the experiences of the sisters in their family but also on the political landscape that engulfs them.
Family and Community Interview Insight
To get a clear picture of the historical background of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, I chose to interview an elderly person in my community who lived during the late sixties. The political climate of the day, as this individual asserts, was positive and tense. At this stage, the Civil Rights Movement had already achieved a lot of changes to the laws, but still a great number of people were discriminated against with respect to housing, employment, and even education.
According to the interviewee, the Black Power Movement encouraged communities to build their cultural identity and fight the inequality in systems. The community programs tended to target education, self-determination, and political awareness. There was, however, a lot of conflict between government institutions and activists (Williams-Garcia & Johnson, 2010). Protests and demonstrations became the form of political expression prevalent in most communities.
These social circumstances influenced family functioning. Even though there were social barriers, parents usually pushed their children to study harder and seek a better future. Families also resorted to the support of extended families and community groups. Boyd-Franklin (2003) noted that such close family and community bonds were good in ensuring that many African American families survived through the times of social inequality.
The interview also brought out the impact of social policies and traditions on the aspirations of the people. Most of the families held the belief that education would unlock social progress even during times when opportunities were minimal. This focus on education can be attributed to the greater quest for equality which characterized the Civil Rights period.
Gender Roles, Race, and Power Dynamics
The issue of gender roles and power relations is also significantly brought up in the novel One Crazy Summer. The mother of the sisters in the story is a very complicated personality who participates in political activism (Williams-Garcia & Johnson, 2010). Her demeanor is a challenge to the traditionally accepted notions of motherhood and demonstrates how women participated in social movements in the 1960s.
In this period, the roles of gender were inclined to be determined by cultural beliefs and economic realities. Women were to play a major role in the home, and they were involved in political and community activities. In the majority of cases, African American women played primary roles in organizing community affairs and encouraging social transformation.
There were also other aspects, like employment and education, that revealed the race and power dynamics. A great number of African Americans had poor employment prospects and inequitable access to quality education. These structural injustices posed economic problems to families and communities (Williams-Garcia & Johnson, 2010). Simultaneously, activism throughout the Civil Rights and Black Power movements was meant to confront these mechanisms of inequality.
Community unrest was yet another important factor in this historical time. There were protests and demonstrations to protest against the police brutality, economic inequalities and political marginalisation. The media did not always cover such events positively; however, many of the activists perceived them as steps toward social justice. This tension is reflected in the novel since it shows how political activism influenced the normal life in the community.
Conclusion
The themes of One Crazy Summer provide a valuable point of contact with the study of racial identity, family relationships and social change in the period of Civil Rights. Applying the theory of identity development by Cross and the knowledge of multicultural families by Boyd-Franklin, it is evident that personal experience and the historical context influence identity formation. Family and community networks provide social support and power, especially in cases of social disparity. At the same time, there are still gender-based, racial, and power concerns that influence the right to education, jobs, and politics. Such historical experiences can be used to discuss the importance of the family and community in maintaining the cultural identity and cohesiveness of the community during such difficult periods.
References
Boyd-Franklin, N. (2003). Black families in therapy: Understanding the African American experience. Guilford Publications.
Cross Jr, W. E. (1978). The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence: A review. Journal of Black psychology, 5(1), 13-31.
Williams-Garcia, R., & Johnson, S. A. (2010). One crazy summer (p. 240). New York: Amistad.
SOWK 602-One Crazy Summer
