Over the past two weeks, I have had many conversations about racism and what I have noticed is we need to begin by understanding racial identity development.
People of all skin colors and races go through an unconscious process of seeing themselves as having a particular skin color or race in the preschool years.
Beyond the rudimentary identification of skin color, we then develop ideas of what it means to be that skin color/race and what it means to be a different color/race.
From there, we can look at two models.
Janet Helms created a model for racial and ethnic identity development for White people in 1990.
William Cross developed the Nigrescence Model for Black People in 1991. The Nigrescence Model can be applied to people in other racial and ethnic groups.
Many of you are struggling with how to help. How to feel empowered to change the system(s). It starts here. Look inside yourself and see if you can identify what stage you fall within. If you need help understanding this and determining where you are, please feel free to reach out via email or a phone call.
Never stop growing.
