2. Why is this important ?
Gives a framework for understanding of
responses and presentations
Acknowledges the impact of racism and
discrimination
Help referrers to make more
appropriate referrals to services
Assists commissioners to understand
and value a wide spectrum of services
3. William Cross
A clinical psychologist practicing in the
USA
Aim – to explain the need for
psychological liberation under
conditions of oppression
Central issues is IDENTITY and
TRANSITION
4. Published..
Negro-to-Black conversion. 1971
Models of Nigrescence. 1980
(Nigrescence – from the French ‘the process of becoming
Black’)
Shades of Black. 1991
His work has been modified and adapted to
the British context by Dr June Farrell
5. Development of identity
AUTOMATIC DISCOVERY
‘socialisation’ ‘encounter’
Early childhood ‘the process of
Adolescence becoming black’
adulthood ‘nigrescence’
6. Stages in Black identity
development
Pre-encounter
Encounter
Immersion – Emersion
Internalisation
7. Pre-encounter
‘.. When I was three years old, I didn’t know I
was Black …’ Cashain David
Neutral – black as a fact
Social stigma – something to be negotiated
Anti Black – black is bad, victim blaming
Spotlight or Race Image Anxiety
Assimilationist - Integration
8. Encounter
Events which catch a person off guard
Shattering of world view
1. Experiencing the encounter – observer
2. Personalising the encounter – being
changed by it
9. Immersion
Immersion – enveloped in a sea of blackness
‘Blacker-than-thou ‘ syndrome
Classifies others into neat categories
Anger @ white people and culture
Pride in one’s black people/culture
Guilt @ being tricked by whites
DANGER of getting STUCK !!
10. Emersion
Emersion – a levelling off of more
extreme feelings of all white is bad
a need to escape from a rigid format of
‘blackness’
Some black is good
Some White is good
11. Internalisation
Characterised by being more level-
headed, calmer,
Reduced anxiety about being the right
sort of Black person
Black pride develops into Black self-
acceptance
12. The cycle of nigrescence
Nigrescence thought of as a ‘one time’ event
Thomas Parnham suggested that there may
be ‘recycling’ through some of the stages in
various parts of the life cycle.
This assists in meeting the challenges that
are presented as part of adolescence, adult
hood, middle age, late adulthood
