Meaning-Making, Internalized Racism, and African American Identity

Jas M. Sullivan, William E. Cross, Jas M. Sullivan, William E. Cross Jr.

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781438462967, 9781438462974
• eBook ISBN: 9781438462981
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
• Index: Social Sciences

Focusing on the broad range of attitudes Black people employ to make sense of their Blackness, this volume offers the latest research on racial identity. The first section explores meaning-making, or the importance of holding one type of racial-cultural identity as compared to another. It looks at a wide range of topics, including stereotypes, spirituality, appearance, gender and intersectionalities, masculinity, and more. The second section examines the different expressions of internalized racism that arise when the pressure of oppression is too great, and includes such topics as identity orientations, self-esteem, colorism, and linked fate. Grounded in psychology, the research presented here makes the case for understanding Black identity as wide ranging in content, subject to multiple interpretations, and linked to both positive mental health as well as varied forms of internalized racism.

PART I

MEANING-MAKING

1

Affirming Blackness

Racial Identity from Racial Color-Blindness to Critical Consciousness

HELEN A. NEVILLE, TUYET-MAI H. HOANG, AND ARIELLE BROWN

At the end of an Australian-rules football game in 1993, Aborigine athlete Nicky Winmar lifted his shirt and pointed to his exposed skin; this iconic image was captured in a photograph and etched into the imagination of sport enthusiasts around the globe. Winmar’s symbolic act challenged both escalating racism in Australian society and in sports and asserted a positive and defiant Black racial identity. His act launched a national dialogue in Australia about racism, and it sparked changes in the culture of the game. It was not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Black athletes affirmed the humanity of their racial-ethnic community by challenging racism through symbolic actions. One may recall Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’s Black power salute during the 1968 Olympic ceremony and, of course more recently, the five St. Louis Rams football players who raised their hands in the air during a pregame activity in solidarity with the protesters following the 2014 non-indictment of a White police officer who killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Since the early work of W. E. B. DuBois at the turn of the twentieth century, scholars have theorized about the ways in which individuals like Winmar, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and the Rams players construct a positive personal and racial identity in the face of racial oppression. DuBois’s work was further developed by researchers during African decolonization (e.g., psychiatrist Franz Fanon) and the Black Power Movement (e.g., psychologist William Cross).

In this chapter, we build on the work of William Cross and his original (1971) and revised (1991) Nigrescence models to understand and describe the process in which Black individuals work to challenge injustices facing the community. We are primarily interested in connecting the saliency and meaning one ascribes to being Black to his or her willingness to foster a deep commitment to the racial-ethnic community in which the individual belongs. Of particular concern is gaining an understanding of the differences between people who internalize the dominant belief system that supports the racial status quo from those who want to disrupt the existing racial conditions. We place Nigrescence theory in conversation with the concepts of racial color-blindness and critical consciousness to capture the complexity involved in this process. Several guidelines based on insights from theory, empirical research, and life stories are provided to promote this type of caring and compassionate Black identity.

Racial Identity and Color-Blind Racial Ideology (CBRI)

Cross’s (1995) articulation of pre-encounter attitudes in which race is not a salient personal identity is closely linked with contemporary articulations of color-blind racial ideology (CBRI). In this section, we briefly define CBRI and outline the ways in which denial of race is a foundational mechanism promoting and maintaining pre-encounter beliefs. In Nigrescence theory, pre-encounter identity (assimilation, miseducation, and self-hatred) consists of a constellation of racial beliefs reflecting a restricted personal exploration of the meaning of race and a limited awareness of the critical conditions shaping Black people as a group. Individuals operating primarily from this identity framework have internalized the negative racial stereotypes about Blacks. This internalization is often unrecognized or rationalized away because of the limited exploration of the meaning of race. Moreover, as part of this internalization, people with high levels of pre-encounter beliefs also adopt the dominant discourse about race and racism (Neville, Coleman, Falconer, & Holmes, 2005), which, at this point in history, is reflective of racial color-blindness.

CBRI is primarily captured by two camps in the social science literature: color-evasion and power-evasion (Frankenberg, 1993; Neville, Awad, Brooks, Flores, & Bluemel, 2013). Persons asserting that they rarely, if ever, notice the color of someone’s skin and do not think of themselves in racial terms are articulating a color-evasion viewpoint; that is, the belief that race does not matter in daily life experiences and in interpersonal relationships. This viewpoint is the cornerstone for a pre-encounter-assimilationist stance. Power-evasion, on the other hand, is reflected in the belief that racism does not matter. Those who argue that anyone who works hard has an equal chance of achieving success in America or in any other “democratic” country reflect a power-evasion frame. These individuals have minimal awareness of racial disparities in society, and if they “see” the disparities, they blame individuals or cultural practices for the disparities as opposed to institutional racism. Thus, people primarily operating from the pre-encounter, miseducated, and self-hatred frames endorse a power-evasion logic. CBRI, therefore, is an information-processing strategy people with high levels of pre-encounter beliefs use to interpret the world around them and to deny the very existence of race(ism) (Helms, 1995).

Adoption of CBRI may, on the surface, seem ideal in order to move beyond the painful legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and other forms of institutional racism. Unfortunately, though, in order to get past race, as a society we must confront the core conditions which maintain racial disparities in education, health, income, incarceration, etc. There is mounting empirical support for the harmful effects of “race blind” policies (e.g., stop-and-frisk policing practices in New York City) and both color- and power-evasion interpersonal practices on people of color (see Neville et al., 2013 for a review). Adoption of CBRI among Black individuals can also be harmful for individual psychological and collective community health (Speight, S. L., Hewitt, A. A., & Cook, H. R. (2016). Color-blind racial ideology and internalized racism among people of color).

Early radical theorists such as Fanon (1967) and more recently, social psychologists, have described the ideological processes preventing people from challenging the racial status quo and developing a critical awareness of race(ism). Fanon applied the concept of cognitive dissonance to racial scenes. This type of dissonance refers to the extreme discomfort individuals experience when they are confronted with information that conflicts with their existing beliefs or values about race(ism); its mechanism leads people to minimize fear and uncertainty by ignoring or denying social inequities. Additionally, system justification theory, or the “process by which existing social arrangements are legitimized, even at the expense of personal and group interest,” offers some insight (Jost & Banaji, 1994, p. 2). From this perspective, people may be motivated unconsciously to defend and support the status quo (van der Toorn & Jost, 2014), even when their group is disadvantaged within the current social and political structure. People who have limited critical awareness have internalized the pervasive negative messages about race and Blackness (Speight, S. L., Hewitt, A. A., & Cook, H. R. (2016). Color-blind racial ideology and internalized racism among people of color). Folks with high levels of CBRI and internalized racism may actively work to reinforce the status quo through overt and covert actions, such as advocating for policies at work that counter efforts to increase diversity in the workforce. Through modeling, education, and positive immersive experiences, people primarily operating from a pre-encounter racial identity frame can slowly explore race and racism more critically.

Racial Identity and Critical Consciousness

Increased saliency of race to one’s identity is associated with a willingness to explore a positive, affirmative Black identity and with working to ensure racial-ethnic community well-being. In this section, we connect an affirmative Black identity to the concept of critical consciousness. We first explain the history and definition of critical consciousness, and then we discuss its role in the context of race and racial identity theory. The Brazilian philosopher, educator, and activist, Paolo Freire (1970), originally coined the term conscientização or critical consciousness. Based on his work to promote literacy among Brazil’s poor and disadvantaged population, Freire defined conscientização as a process where the oppressed and marginalized individuals achieve critical understanding of structural and systemic inequities that shape their social conditions, and they take action to change their circumstances and liberate themselves from social injustice (Freire, 1970; Watts, Diemer, & Voight, 2011). Over the past forty years, scholars around the globe have built on these early writings. For example, Diemer, Rapa, Park, and Perry (2014) further operationalized critical consciousness as consisting of two types of critical reflection—that is, critical analysis of perceived social inequalities and egalitarianism or the endorsement of societal equality—and critical action or the participation in individual and/or collective action to produce sociopolitical change. In this sense, critical action is viewed as transformative in nature and not merely ameliorative.

We argue that critical consciousness is connected to racial identity, especially as captured in the fifth stage in Cross’s (1971) original Nigrescence model, internalization-commitment. Cross described people who have achieved internalization-commitment as individuals who have incorporated racial pride into their self-concept and are deeply committed to trying actively to improve the conditions of the Black masses. In the revised Nigrescence model, Cross (1991, 1995) removed the fifth stage and expanded the internalization to consist of three identity themes: Afrocentric or Black nationalist, biculturalist, and multiculturalist. We believe there is value in the articulation of the fifth and final stage in the original Nigrescence model as a separate and unique identity theme because the attitudes and beliefs characterized in this identity theme moved beyond ideology and incorporated the actions one takes to transform his or her environment. This articulation is consistent with the initial intent of racial identity, which was a call to Black studies scholars to increase Black students’ consciousness as a means of radical transformation.

More often than not, though, people either have yet to develop a critical awareness of the ways in which race shapes the lives of Black people as individuals and collectively, or if they have a critical awareness, they take little or no action to challenge the root causes of oppression to better the conditions of their community. Individuals with critical reflection without critical action often lack what Watts, Diemer, and Voight (2011) described as agency. They argue, “People may understand structural inequalities, but not feel compelled to act on their insights unless they believe their efforts will yield a desired outcome” (p. 45). Therefore, the major difference between individuals who primarily operate from within an internalization-commitment identity framework, compared to other types of internalization frameworks (i.e., Afrocentric or Black nationalist, biculturalist, and multiculturalist), is a sense of agency to take action based on a deep awareness of the condition of Blacks and a belief that their actions can make a difference.

Connecting Black Racial Identity, CBRI, and Critical Consciousness through Life Stories

To illustrate the distinction between critical reflection without action and critical consciousness (both reflection/awareness and action), we provide examples from real-life stories. As a way of contextualizing this distinction, we first describe the life story of someone who holds high levels of pre-encounter beliefs and employs system justification to support the status quo; the first narrative thus represents the story of someone who has very little critical reflection about the role of race(ism) in society (i.e., high levels of CBRI) and thus, has not taken action to work toward racial justice. These life stories come from the first author’s multinational Black racial identity research project. She conducted over sixty racial life-narrative interviews with people who self-identify as Black in four countries (Australia, Bermuda, South Africa, and the United States). The purpose of the larger project was to describe the process in which people develop a positive Black identity, taking into consideration the intersecting identities that influence this process, including nationality, ethnicity, culture, and gender.

Sandra is a mother of three and she was a returning college student at the time of the interview. She decided to work toward an associate’s degree when the Bermudian government offered free tuition at the two-year college on the island. Having grown up in a predominantly Black neighborhood and attending predominantly Black schools, Sandra never gave much thought about race or racism. “I’ve never experienced a racial, I’ve never come up against racism. When I started to realize there was Black and White, was in my work years.” She talked at length about a “horrible” work situation in which her boss publicly humiliated her. “She would always try to prove me wrong, always try to find fault … And, it was never like, justified, but it was like, ‘I have to prove to the other people in the office that I am your boss.’ ” Sandra was in turmoil over the treatment at work especially since she considered her boss a friend; sh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Meaning-Making
• Part II Internalized Racism
• Conclusion
• Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover