Racial and Ethnic Identity Development
As correctly pointed out by W.E.B du Bois, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. degree at Harvard, the biggest problem that the twentieth century is facing is racial in nature. There is hatred found in the hearts of people especially students belonging to different race and culture. Each perceives another to be a threat to its cultural roots and identity. This gives rise to conflict where students take teachers of a different color to be a threat to them and where girls fear being raped by people just because they belong to a different race.Helms defines racial identity in the words "a sense of group or collective identity based on one's perception that he or she shares a common racial heritage with a particular racial group" (Helms, 1993, p.3). McIntosh (1989) blames the white for the racial and oppression present in the United States. Ethnic identity on the other hand is defined by Yinger as "a segment of a larger society whose members are thought by themselves or others, to have a common origin and to share the segments of a common culture and who in addition participate in shared activities in which the common origin and culture are significant ingredients." (Yinger, 1976, p.200)
1.The Cross Model of Psychological Nigrescence Internationalization marks the stage where an individual starts thinking more critically about his culture and achieve a sense of acceptance that he is black and thus gains self-confidence. This leads onto the renegotiation of relationships with people from other ethnic groups including whites. Immersion-Emersion is the third stage that marks the individual ridding himself of his old identity and fantasizes about new black self-images. He determines himself to change. They isolate themselves from people of other ethnicities or skin color and immerse themselves within people of the same color. All this leads to the factors that are part of the fourth stage known as "Internationalization." Disintegration is the name given to the second status and includes whites who recognize the moral dilemma associated with being white. There is emotional discomfort when he sees the hypocrisy in what the society teaches and what it actually practices. They then want to believe that racism is not because of the whites.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Psychological Nigrescence, African American, Phase Contact, Phase II, Moratorium Achievement, Internationalization Internationalization, United Ethnic, Model Helms, DEVELOPMENT MODELS, John Phinney, ethnic identity, identity development, white identity, ethnic identity development, stage individual, identity development model, identity immersion-emersion, anger develops, comes contact, white identity development, common origin, model ethnic identity, status phase, individual comes contact, themselves people,
Approximate Word count = 946
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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