We examine vulnerability to sea-level rise through the process of racial coastal formation on Sapelo Island, Georgia, specifically analyzing its deep history, the uneven racial development of land ownership and employment, and barriers to African American participation and inclusion in adaptation planning.
"The lack of diversity in Minnesota did have an impact on my racial development and ideas of what was 'normal,'" Barlow said.
His work and research in racial awareness development emphasizes the roles and identity development of whites in general and, more specifically, heterosexual white US American males, using a multicultural perspective.
Culturally skilled therapists are aware of how their own cultural background and experiences have influenced attitudes, values, and biases and maintain a heightened awareness of the challenges that socio-race, racial identity development, gender bias, and age present for clients undergoing treatment.
*White racial identity development was first theorized and written about by Dr. Janet Helms.
Like many white people, I went through every stage that psychologist Janet Helms documents in her highly influential model of white racial identity development.
A clinical psychologist by training, her areas of research include racial identity development, and the role of race in the classroom.
More frightening, if that's where we adults are at, how are we possibly going to enable our kids' healthy racial identity development?
Rather, "acting White" is just a manifestation of racial identity development for Black children and teenagers, who are learning and defining for themselves what it means to be "Black"—in conjunction with normal adolescent peer pressure and hassles.
Margaret Beale Spencer and Vinay Harpalani (2008) argue that usage of the term "acting White" by Black teenagers does not reflect their cultural values; rather, it is a manifestation of their racial identity development, experienced in conjunction with normal adolescent hassles and peer pressure.
Rachel Dolezal is a fascinating case study in White racial identity development.* She is stuck in the immersion/emersion stage, in which White people, having learned extensively about the realities of racism, and the ugly history of White supremacy in the U.S., "immerse" themselves in trying to figure out how to be White in our society, and "emerge" with a new relationship to Whiteness.
