Racial Identity Models

1. Racial Identity Models

2. What is Racial Identity • Racial identity is how you define yourself as a racial/ethnic being, how salient it is in your daily life, what value you assign to your racial makeup. • It’s an important within group difference; identity development could affect clients' reactions to idea of counseling, counseling process, and the counselor. • There are a number of different racial identity models with some similar stages. All have acknowledgement of sociopolitical influences in shaping identity.

5. Possible Counseling Implications of Racial ID models • Conformity • May prefer counselor from dominant group and feel one from own culture is not as qualified • Might be reluctant to explore cultural identity - raises uncomfortable issues • Might want problem-solving approach that does not address race

6. Dissonance • Might want counselor who is knowledgeable about cultural group and willing to discuss racial issues. May not introduce racial issues, but responds positively to the counselor who does. • Might be experiencing confusion and a loss of “sense of self.”

7. Immersion/Emersion (Resistance) • Total endorsement of minority views and rejection of dominant culture - activist position against oppression. • Psychological problems are result of oppression (external system). • Rapport, disclosure, trust to counselor of dominant group difficult. • Counseling is part of the establishment • Don’t personalize attacks, be nondefensive and open to acknowledging sociopolitical forces as they exist.

8. Internalization (Introspection) • May feel like “selling out” when start to pull back from group and need assistance dealing with group’s reactions. • May want assistance in clarifying values and incorporating both functional ones from majority culture as well as from own group.

9. Integrative Awareness (Synergetic) • Preference for counselor based on shared and understood worldview rather than race. • Appreciate counseling strategies aimed at broader system change that improves world for all groups.

10. Similarities and Differences • All start with a strong identification and acceptance of the dominant culture’s worldview, values, and perspectives and assumptions about members of minority groups. While some models (Helms, MID) assume this stage entails self-hatred, the Cross model allows for different reactions of low racial salience, race as a social stigma and then self-hating. • All models have a period of dissonance or conflict where experiences that challenge the former conforming identity occur and are considered.

11. Similarities Continued • All minority models have a period of intense immersion into the minority group culture where all things White are considered bad and all things about their own group are considered good. This is a reactive time and can involve great emotions of anger toward the dominant group and intense pride in the minority group. • All models have some transition from the intensity of immersion to a more individualized consideration of what race means for each person and how it fits with the totality of identity.

12. Limitations • Identity development is dynamic. Danger in using stages like fixed entities instead of conceptual framework. Stages/statuses will mix and manifest in one situation or the other. • Not sure that everyone progresses through all stages. Depending on how one is raised, some statuses might be skipped. • There is an implied value judgment that integrative awareness is higher form of healthy functioning. However, a person in the earliest stage could be just as mentally healthy as a person in the last stage. • Need to understand how sociocultural forces impact development. Many of the models were conceptualized in the context of major social movements.

13. White Racial Consciousness • Not a stage theory - simply a description of commonly held attitudes that White individuals might have toward persons of color. • Attitudes typically have an affective component and are acquired through observational learning.

14. Oklahoma Racial Attitudes Scale • Attitudes of Racial Acceptance • Dominative = Negative image of minority individuals. Pro-White and ethnocentric • Integrative = Positive attitudes toward all racial groups, comfort with self and others as racial beings. • Attitudes of Racial Justice • Conflictive = Don’t support obvious discrimination, but also feel that efforts to assist minorities discriminate against Whites. • Reactive = Feel that Whites benefit from the status quo so support efforts to change that.

15. Level of commitment to racial attitudes • Avoidant - unconcerned about racial issues. A non-issue for the person. • Dissonant - Uncertain about what one believes, in a questioning place • Dependent - Attitudes simply reflect unquestioning acceptance of of views of others (family, community).