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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Brenau chapter.

There are many people in the world who are not aware of racial understanding. People make accusations about social demographic groups all the time, but have no knowledge of racial understanding. As a caucasian individual, you need to understand and accept your racial privileges as well as obtain the knowledge of racial minority differences. There are many steps leading up to the understanding of racial differences. Pseudo-Independence and Immersion/Emersion are the fifth and sixth steps of the understanding process. As a caucasian female, I have developed a good sense and understanding of racial identity and stereotypes.

    One of the most controversial issues we uphold within this world is the misunderstanding of racial differences. People are raised in many different environments, this may include some of the following: zero diversity, one’s own dominant race, environmental intolerance upon minorities, or painful insights performed by another race. Throughout these different communities, stereotypes will arise and spread to children that are in the preoperational stage of growth. This will set a baseline on how they should conceive different races. Within this delicate part of life, learning comes from looking up to individuals who people are accompanied by. Stereotyping is learned during growth, since during younger ages you learn by generalization it is easier to title a child as “racist”. Stereotyping and racial discrimination is something we have been dealing with since the beginning of time, so as we enter this new century race privilege and minority groups need to be understood within the racial majority of the population. These racial understandings take place through many different stages and will take time to understand completely.