Racial Identity Development

1. Racial Identity Development Lola Osunkoya, MA, LPCC For La Semana Culture Camp July 24, 2019

2. Intro and Basic Frameworks Who I am and my identities. Frameworks for Identity Exploration: • White Supremacy and White Normativity • Heteronormativity and Heterosexism • Patriarchy and Sexism • Cis-normativity and Transphobia

3. The Meaning of Identity • Identity formation is widely recognized as an important stage of human development. In the best case scenario, racial identity is a uniting factor, providing a cultural reference group, ethnic socialization, and a sense of belonging within which to embed a personal identity (Vivero & Jenkins, 1999). • For people of color in America, race can be a very important aspect of personal and social identity. For people of mixed racial heritage, transracial adoptees, and people with nonbinary gender and sexual identities, negotiating identity can be complex. • Racism, and specifically internalized racism, can affect identity development negatively. • To understand the importance and meaning of racial identity, history and context are necessary.

4. History and Context Questions for Centering • Which identities make up the person’s ethnic/cultural/racial heritage? • What are some of the major historical events that have occurred within the history of their racial or cultural identities? • What are themes in the relationships between the different parts of the ancestry (i.e. – patterns of immigration, history of oppression, commonly held stereotypes)? • Are there any other historical or current social conflicts between cultures within the person’s identities? • Are there hierarchical attitudes about subgroups within the cultures?

5. Identity Development Models

6. My interest in the questions about the nature of the Black experience and the dynamic changes that we were witnessing… was more practical than existential or theoretical. I wanted to understand how this transformation or “conversion” experience (referencing theorist William Cross’s “Negro to Black conversion experience”) was affecting the way Black people saw themselves and responded to their world and with each other and how it affected the motives and behavior patterns of Black people. B.W. Jackson, 2001, p. 11 Black Identity Development (BID) Model

7. B.W. Jackson’s Black Identity Development Model • Naïve: the absence of social consciousness or identity • Acceptance: acceptance of the prevailing White/majority description and perceived worth of Black People, Black culture, or experience • Resistance: the rejection of the prevailing majority culture’s definition and valuing of Black people and culture • Redefinition: the renaming, reaffirming, and reclaiming of one’s sense of Blackness, Black Culture, and racial identity • Internalization: the integration of a redefined racial identity into all aspects of one’s self-concept or identity.

8. I was certain that in a society with racism at its core, racism affected Whites as the dominant and privileged racial group as certainly as it affected people of color, albeit in different and obvious ways. Hardiman, 2001, p. 109 White Identity Development (WID) Model

9. Hardiman’s WID Model • No Social Consciousness of Race or Naivete: Whites have no understanding of the social meaning of race or the value attached to one race over another. • Acceptance: The White person accepts or internalizes racism and a sense of himself as racially superior to people of color, although this sense of dominance, privilege, or entitlement is often unconscious. • Resistance: An individual questioning the dominant paradigm about race and resisting or rejecting racist programming. • Redefinition: The White person begins to clarify his own self-interest against racism, and begins to accept and take responsibility for his Whiteness. • Internalization: Integrating or internalizing this increased consciousness regarding race and racism and one’s new White identity into all aspects of one’s life.

10. Our experience of Latinos as a group is of a multifaceted, dynamic, complex, and very heterogeneous people for whom simple answers are never sufficient. The difficulty we often face is that to facilitate comprehension we must gloss over the more complex aspects of our understanding or describe the Latino experience in the context of constructs and frameworks that do not necessarily fit and that were generated by the experience and perspective of other groups. Ferdman & Gallegos, 2001, p. 33 Latino Identity Development

11. Factors Influencing Latino Identity • Geographic location and distribution • Political affiliation • Socioeconomic status • Language use • Gender • Nativity • Immigration status • Generation in the United States • Acculturation status • Education • Sexual orientation • Intergroup relations • Chosen racial identity, if any

13. Cultural-Racial Identity Model for Transracial Adoptees

14. Social Context Models for Mixed Race: Rockquemore et al’s Ecological Model • Racial identity varies. • Racial identity often changes over the life course. • Racial identity development is not a predictable linear process with a single outcome. • Social, cultural, and spatial context are critical.

15. Based on the idea that the individual has identity choices within context, Wiheyesinghe identified 8 surrounding individual factors: • Early Experience and Socialization • Political Awareness and Orientation • Spirituality • Other Social Identities • Social and Historical Context • Physical Appearance • Racial Ancestry • Cultural Attachment Social Context Models: Wiheyesinghe’s Factor Model of Multiracial Identity There is an important distinction between models that describe the development of a Multiracial identity… and models that address racial identity in Multiracial people. Wijeyesinghe, 2001, p. 136

16. An Example of Development – Age 8 • Early Experience and Socialization: Living with White family only, mainly White social circle • Political Awareness and Orientation: Mother, aunt and peers identify as democrats, and it appears most people of color identify this way; Grandparents are republicans with framed pictures of republican politicians displayed at home. • Spirituality: Christian upbringing, grandparents take to a White Baptist church 1-3 times per week. Christian characters in Bible, artwork, projects presented as white. • Other Social Identities: Female identified, daughter, friend. • Social and Historical Context: Nigerian parent not present, “African Booty Snatcher” is an offensive childhood taunt for Black children, no exposure to African Culture, manner of speech alienates/offends Black children, entirely embedded in White family, multicultural circle of friends and parent’s friends. • Physical Appearance: Light Skin, coarse hair that gets chemically relaxed to be more manageable (acceptable), overweight • Racial Ancestry: Nigerian father, Scandanavian American Mother • Cultural Attachment: Primarily attached and embedded in White culture, teased and bullied by Black children.

17. An Example of Development – Age 42 • Early Experience and Socialization: White family and social circle. Sought out more POC social circles in adulthood. • Political Awareness and Orientation: Training to orient democrat throughout childhood/early adulthood. Adult exploration of political nature of identifying as Black. Black Lives Matter, unpacking of complex nature of well-meaning liberal Whiteness. • Spirituality: Adult rejection of Christian church, oriented toward more metaphysical spirituality and Buddhist principles. • Other Social Identities: Female identified, daughter, friend, therapist, on the fringe of Aunty/Big Sister status in community. • Social and Historical Context: Nigerian parent not present. Sought out father and exposure to Nigerian culture in adulthood. Multicultural circle of friends with pattern of close friends who are Mixed or Transracial Adoptees. • Physical Appearance: Light Skin, coarse hair that codes her as Black • Racial Ancestry: Nigerian father, Scandanavian American Mother • Cultural Attachment: Attachment to multi-cultural friends of color and “safe Whites.” Aware of more of a variety of African and African-American people who aren’t as vulnerable to stereotypes and border patrolling. Identifies as Mixed and Black.

18. Closing Return to Large Group for Processing and Wrap Up • What was it like to put yourself in racialized contexts? • In what ways are you privileged or oppressed by structures of White Supremacy, White Normativity, Heterosexism, Patriarchy, and Transphobia? • What would it be like if you gave your child this much context? • How does it change your relationship with your children when you begin to understand the complexity of their racial/ethnic identities? What will you do differently?

19. Stay in Touch! Lola Osunkoya, MA, LPCC Neither/Both LLC A Safe Place to Explore Complex Identity www.neitherboth.com lola@neitherboth.com

20. References • Bilodeau, B. “Beyond the Gender Binary: A Case Study of Transgender College Student Development at a Midwestern University.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education, 2005, 2(4) • D’Augelli, A. R. (1994). Identity development and sexual orientation: Toward a model of lesbian, gay, and bisexual development. In E. J. Trickett, R.J. Watts, & D. Birman (Eds.), Human Diversity: Perspectives on People in Context (pp. 312-333). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Ferdman, B.M. & Gallegos, P. I. (2001). Latinos and racial identity development. In C. L. Wijeyesinghe & B. W. Jackson III (Eds.), New perspectives on racial identity development: A theoretical and practical anthology (pp. 32-66). New York: New York University Press. • Goodwin, A. L. (2003). Growing up Asian in America: A search for self. In C. C. Park, A. L. Goodwin and S. J. Lee, (Eds.), Asian American Identities, Families and Schooling (pp. 3-26). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc. • Hardiman, R. (2001). Reflections on white identity development theory. In C.L. Wijeyesinghe & B.W. Jackson III (Eds.), New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: A Theoretical and Practical Anthology. New York, NY: New York University Press. • Hays, P. A. (2001). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: A framework for clinicians and counselors. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.

21. References • Jackson III, B.W. (2001). Black identity development: Further analysis and elaboration. In C.L. Wijeyesinghe & B.W. Jackson III (Eds.), New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: A Theoretical and Practical Anthology. New York, NY: New York University Press. • Kim J. (1981)The process of Asian American identity development. In Sue, et al. (1998). Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Individual and Organizational Development. Sage Productions.Thousand Oaks, CA. • Rockquemore, K.A.,Brunsma, D.L., & Delgado, D. J. (2009). Racing to theory or retheorizing race? Understanding the struggle to build a multiracial identity theory. Journal of Social Issues, 65(1), 13-34. • Steward, R.J. & Baden, A.L (1995). The Cultural-Racial Identity Model: Understanding the Racial Identity and Cultural Identity Development of Transracial Adoptees. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED395076 06/01/2019. • The Gender Unicorn. Retrieved from http://www.transstudent.org/gender/ 06/01/2019. • Vivero, V. N. & Jenkins, S. R. (1999). Existential hazards of the multicultural individual: Defining and understanding “cultural homelessness.” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 5(1), 6-26. • Wijeyesinghe, C. L. (2001). Racial identity in multiracial people: An alternative Paradigm. In C.L. Wijeyesinghe & B.W. Jackson III (Eds.), New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: A Theoretical and Practical Anthology. New York, NY: New York University Press.