Diversity, Inclusivity & Civility:

Developing & Enhancing Students'

Cultural Competence
Part I
Tom Brown
www.tbrownassociates.com
tom@tbrownassociates.com
 Blink

Most of us make judgments in

less than two seconds….
Many of our conclusions are less
rational than we think.
In order to be effective in a
diverse world?
We must use our powers of
observation….
 Count the Fs

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF
-IC STUDIES COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
 Being Aware, Conscious, and
Paying Attention

There are six…

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF
-IC STUDIES COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
 Perception:
The process of making sense of the
world around us…
people, situations, etc.

Reality from our point of view….

Our perceptions reinforce what we have

been taught or expect, and they can
shape our interactions with others
different or similar to ourselves.
 PARIS
IN THE
THE SPRING
Our perceptions reinforce what we have
been taught or expect, and they can
shape our interactions with others
different or similar to ourselves.
The U.S. college campus is one of
the few places on earth where
people from so many diverse
backgrounds come together for a
common purpose…
Imagine a school where all kinds of
people feel comfortable showing up,
secure in the knowledge that they
have a place they don’t have to defend
every time they turn around, where
they are encouraged to do their best,
and are valued for it….
Privilege, Power, and Difference
Allan G. Johnson, 2006
 Workshop Overview
• Why does diversity matter?
• Does diversity support student learning
and development? Why and how?
• What is cultural competence?
• Can cultural competence be
developed?
• Addressing Some Diversity Issues
• Barriers to Engagement
 Why does diversity matter?

It’s not just the U.S.

Schools with an inclusive orientation are the

most effective means of combating
discriminatory attitudes and creating
welcoming communities, building an
inclusive society and achieving education
for all.
UNESCO Salamanca Statement, 1994
 Why does diversity matter?
A view from beyond the academy…

Whether we like it or not, many times we find

ourselves segregated from other groups in
schools, churches, and our own
neighborhoods. A college campus is like
opening the door to the entire world without
traveling anywhere else.
Why Does Diversity Matter at College Anyway?
US News and World Report , August 12, 2009
Pre-college experiences of US students
* Public universities ** Private universities

• >71% grew up in neighborhoods that were

“mostly or completely white.”
• +/-15% grew up in neighborhoods that
were “mostly or completely non-white.”
• 61*-65%** attended high schools that were
“mostly or completely white.”
• 13**-16%* attended high schools that were
“mostly or completely non-white.”
2009 Freshman Survey
 Why does diversity matter?
It matters for institutions

To keep pace in today's complex and

competitive global arena, American higher
education must retire old notions of
educational exclusivity and embrace new
models of inclusive excellence.
“Rethinking Educational Practices to Make Excellence
Inclusive,” Diversity & Democracy, Spring 2009
 Why does diversity matter?
It matters for students
By incorporating diverse content, perspectives,
and approaches into the curriculum, faculty of all
disciplines have found both pedagogical and
curricular routes that strengthen scholarship and
prepare students for engagement with today's
complex world.

“Teaching Diversity and Democracy Across the Disciplines: Who, What &
How, Diversity & Democracy, Fall 2009
The U.S. college campus is one of
the few places on earth where
people from so many diverse
backgrounds come together for a
common purpose…
The other is the US workplace…
 Are Diversity and
Learning Connected?
 Essential Liberal Learning Outcomes

1. Intellectual and Practical Skills

2. Personal and Social Responsibility
3. Integrative and Applied Learning

American Association of Colleges & Universities

http://www.aacu.org/value/
 Essential Liberal Learning Outcomes
Selected examples
1. Intellectual and Practical Skills: inquiry and
analysis; critical thinking; teamwork; problem
solving
2. Personal and Social Responsibility: civic
knowledge and engagement - local and global;
intercultural knowledge and competence; ethical
reasoning; foundations and skills for lifelong
learning
3. Integrative and Applied Learning: integrative
and applied learning
AAC&U
 Do diversity experiences influence
the development of critical thinking?
Students' involvement in diversity
experiences during college had
statistically significant positive effects
on their scores on an objective,
standardized measure of critical
thinking skills.

Pascarella, Palmer, Moye, & Pierson, T.

Journal of College Student Development, 2001
 Do diverse learning experiences
benefit students?
• Diversity has positive effects on students’
cognitive development, satisfaction with the
college experience, and leadership abilities.
• Students who interact with racially and
ethnically diverse peers show greater
intellectual growth and academic skills.
• Both in-class and out-of-class interactions
and involvement with diverse peers foster
critical thinking
Benefits and Challenges of Diversity, Eve Fine, 2004
 Do diverse learning experiences
benefit students?
• Diversity has positive effects on students’
cognitive development, satisfaction with the
college experience, and leadership abilities.
• Students who interact with racially and
ethnically diverse peers show greater
intellectual growth and academic skills.
• Both in-class and out-of-class interactions
and involvement with diverse peers foster
critical thinking
Benefits and Challenges of Diversity, Eve Fine, 2004
 Diversity and Education
Southern Oregon University

• Diversity capitalizes on the unique experiences

and common wisdom of all cultures by
providing a fertile ground for contrast and
comparison.
• Provides a view of other peoples so distinct
from, yet similar to, ourselves that our own
lives and experiences are given new
perspective and meaning.
• Diversity is an enriching and necessary
component of the total educational experience.
How does increasing cultural
competence support student learning,
growth and development?
 Chickering’s Seven Vectors:
Developmental Tasks for College Students

1. Developing competence
2. Managing emotions
3. Moving through autonomy toward
interdependence,
4. Developing mature interpersonal relationships
5. Establishing identity
6. Developing purpose
7. Developing integrity
Chickering & Reisser, 1993
 Developing Competence

• Involves using one’s mind to build skill using

analytical and comprehensive thought and the
development of forming points of view in
dealing with experiences in life.
• Encompass skills of listening, understanding,
and communicating and functioning in
different relationships.

Chickering & Reisser, 1993

 Developing Mature
Interpersonal Relationships

• Tolerance and appreciation of differences

• Acceptance is both intercultural and
interpersonal. Openness for the
understanding of a person for what qualities
they possess, instead of stereotyping, is an
increase in tolerance.

Chickering & Reisser, 1993

 Developing Mature
Interpersonal Relationships

• Acceptance and appreciation of differences

• Acceptance is both intercultural and
interpersonal. Openness for the
understanding of a person for what qualities
they possess, instead of stereotyping, is an
increase in tolerance.

Chickering & Reisser, 1993

 Developing Identity

• Comfort with body and appearance

• Comfort with gender and sexual orientation
• A sense of self in a social, historical, and
cultural context
• Clarification of self-concept through roles and
life-style

Chickering & Reisser, 1993

 Developing Integrity

• Integrity for one’s beliefs, values, and

purposes must be established.
• Also, thinking about others’ beliefs and points
of view
• The willingness to preserve self-respect while
monitoring behavior.

Chickering & Reisser, 1993

 Are Diversity and
Learning Connected?

Questions?
Comments?
 What is Cultural Competence

A set of congruent knowledge, attitudes

and behaviors that enable persons from
one culture to understand,
communicate, operate and provide
effective services to people of another
culture.

Multiple sources
 Developing Cultural Competence:
A Matter of National Security

Concerns that the military as a whole was not

prepared to conduct operations in a way that
understands other cultures sparked an influx
of research into the areas related to cross
cultural competence.
Instances of stereotyping, racism, and abuses
of power showcased the ways in which military
members alienated the local populations [in
places such as Iraq…]
 Cultural competence

• Cultural knowledge
• Cultural awareness
• Cultural skill
• Cultural encounters
• Cultural desire

Campinha-Bacote, 1999
 Cross cultural competence
• Developing an awareness of one's own culture,
existence, sensations, thoughts, and
environment;
• Accepting and respecting cultural differences;
• Resisting judgmental attitudes such as
"different is not as good;" and
• Being open to cultural encounters;
• Being comfortable with cultural encounters.
“The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence”
Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Health
Summer 2005
Don’t ask students to get out of
their comfort zone….

Challenge and support them to

stretch their comfort zone.
 Cross Cultural Competence includes:

• Willingness to Engage
• Cognitive Flexibility & Openness
• Emotional Regulation
• Tolerance of Uncertainty
• Self- Efficacy
• Ethnocultural Empathy.
 Willingness to Engage

Represents an individual’s willingness

or persistence to stay engaged in
making sense of unfamiliar social
situations in dissimilar cultures.
 Cognitive Flexibility & Openness

The ability to be flexible in one’s

approach is expected to allow an
individual to solve a range of problems
in complex and dynamic situations,
which is tantamount to mission success

Gompert, Lachow, & Perkins, 2005

 Tolerance of Uncertainty &
Ambiguity

A general disposition that broadly

influences cognition, attitudes, and
behavior. Low tolerance for ambiguity is
characterized by rigidity, dichotomous
thinking, authoritarianism, and
ethnocentrism.

Frenkel-Brunswik, in Abbe et al., 2007

 Self Efficacy

A person with high self-efficacy may

engage in more cross-cultural encounters and
persist in encounters, whereas a person with
low self-efficacy would harbor feelings of self-
doubt and may be likely to withdraw
prematurely from such encounters.

Bandura, 1997; Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, & Ng,

2004; Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995
 Ethnocultural Empathy
• Does not feel irritated when people of different
ethnic or cultural backgrounds speak their
native language around them
• Not difficult to put themselves in the shoes of
someone from another culture.
• Can easily understand what it would feel like
to be a person from a different culture.
• When dealing with people of a different
ethnicity or culture, understanding their
viewpoint is a top priority.
• Thinks about the impact of jokes on people
who are targeted.
 Developing competence is a process

• Cultural competence is not acquired

quickly or casually, rather it requires an
intentional examination of one’s thoughts
and behaviors.
• The first step toward becoming culturally
competent is realizing that you probably
aren’t.
“Cultural Competence in the Biology Classroom”
Kimberly Tanner & Deborah Allen, 2007
 Developing competence is a process
• Denial: individuals refuse all interaction with other
cultures and show no interest in discovering
cultural differences. They may also act
aggressively during cross cultural situations.

• Defense: individuals consider all other cultures to

be inferior to their own culture and will constantly
criticize behavior or thoughts by someone from
another culture.

• Minimization: individuals start believing that all

cultures share common values. They will also
minimize any cultural differences by correcting
people to match their expectations.
Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity
Dr. Milton Bennett
 Developing competence is a process
• Acceptance: Individuals may still judge other
cultures negatively but they will tend to recognize
that cultures are different and they may become
curious about cultural differences

• Adaptation: Individuals gain the ability to adapt

their behavior by intentionally changing their own
behavior or communication style.

• Integration: this stage, individuals instinctively

change their behavior and communication style
when interacting with other cultures. This stage
tends to only be achieved by long term expatriates
living and working abroad or Global Nomads.

Dr. Milton Bennett

 Cross Cultural Competence includes:
Having the capacity to:
• value diversity
• conduct self-assessment
• manage the dynamics of difference
• acquire and institutionalize cultural
knowledge
• adapt to the diversity and cultural
contexts of individuals and communities
served.
 From Knowing to Doing…

Requires more than acquiring

knowledge…. It is leveraging…
knowledge, attitudes, and skills to
engage and intervene
appropriately…across cultures.
Latino 101, Dr. Maria Hernandez, 2007
Cultural Competence

Questions?
Comments?
Attention to diversity perceived as divisive
and inhibiting community.

A strategy to counter the divisive

perceptions of diversity is to broaden
our definition of diversity, in ways that
highlight the intersectionality of
race/ethnic, gender, class, religion,
sexual orientation, within a framework
of marginalization and justice.
Marilyn Fernandez, Santa Clara University
 Making “Diversity” More Inclusive

“Culture” is often viewed in the U.S. as

being primarily related to race, ethnicity,
and gender

Effective diversity/inclusivity education

must also address other kinds of
diversity which lead to marginalization
and exclusion.
 If the World Were a Village of 100 People
• 49 would be male, 51 would be female
• 82 people of color; 18 white
• 33 Christians
• 22 Muslims, 15 Hindus
• 14 would speak Chinese, Mandarin
• 8 English
• 8 Hindi
• 7 Spanish
• 89 would be heterosexual; 11 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender(LGBT)
• 67 would be unable to read
• 5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US
citizens

• 1 would have a college education

 Seven kinds of diversity
Beverly D. Tatum, 1999*

“Otherness” “ism”
• Race/ethnicity • Racism/ethnocentrism
• Gender • Sexism
• Religion • Religious oppression
• Sexual Orientation • Heterosexism
• Socio-economic status • Classism
• Age • Ageism
• Physical/Mental Ability • Ableism
*Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?
Other diversity??
 Other diversity
1. Weight
2. Height
3. Accent
 Accent Bias
Many Americans distrust those who
speak English with a foreign accent.

When we don’t understand what

someone is saying, we lose confidence
in the speaker altogether.

“Why We Don’t Believe Non-Native Speakers”

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2010
 Inclusive College Policies
No person shall be subjected to discrimination in any
program or activity of the District on the basis of:
 accent  language
• age • marital status
• ancestry • medical condition
 citizenship status • national origin
• color  parental status
• disability • race
 economic status • religion
• ethnic group • sexual orientation
identification  transgender
• gender  veteran status
 Developing Cross Cultural
Competence

Addressing Some Diversity Issues

Socio-economic issues?
 What do we believe about poverty?

Poverty in the US is decreasing

The poverty rate had risen significantly
in seven of the prior 10 years from a
recent low of 11.3 percent in 2000.
US Census Bureau September 2012
 What do we believe about poverty?

The poor are lazy and unwilling to work…

• 2/3 of people living in poverty work an

average of 1.7 jobs
• 1 in 4 earns poverty level wages (less than
$8.84 an hour)
• 27% of working families have INCOMES
below 200% of the poverty level
 Facts about US poverty…
The federal “poverty threshold” in 2012 for a
family of four with two children 17 or younger
is $23.050.

A hypothetical US single parent needs to make

at least $20.14 per hour just to cover his or her
family’s basic necessities. That’s in the
cheapest state – South Dakota.

The nationwide average is $24.09 per hour, or

>$50,000 per year
MIT Living Wage Calculator
 What do we believe about poverty?

Poverty is an “inner city” problem.

Since 2000, suburban poverty rates have

increased by 53% compared to 26% in cities.

Brookings Institution, October 2011

 Facts about US poverty…
• The rate of child poverty is higher in the United
States than in most other economically
advanced countries.
• 16.1 million US children (persons under 18)
living in poverty in 2011
• Only two of the 33 countries in the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development devote a smaller share of their
economic output to programs that help poor
families make ends meet than the United
States – Mexico and South Korea.
 Encourage Critical Thinking

Conservative think tanks have spawned a

cottage industry churning out dubious studies
purporting to show that poor families are
living high on the hog on public benefits, a
claim that anybody who has actually
experienced poverty in America would find
laughable.
What Matters Today, Joshua Holland 9/21/13
http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/21/cato-institute-
report-says-poor-americans-have-it-too-good/
 And the American people?

A majority of Americans sympathize

with the challenges low-income
Americans face, with 88 percent
saying they deserve help.

Perceptions of Poverty
Salvation Army, May 2012
 Examining Class and Race Exercise

I grew up believing all Americans have equal

opportunity to succeed because there is a level
playing field and affirmative action was no
longer necessary. Since then, I have found this
exercise useful to challenge our common
assumptions of equal access.

Paul Kivel, Educator, Activist, Writer

http://www.paulkivel.com/resources/exercises/24-
exercise/126-examining-class-and-race
Diversity and inclusivity
are about understanding…

not necessarily agreeing.

Religious Diversity
Religious diversity
I am noticing more women wearing
head scarves (hijab) and they seem
to draw some negative reactions
from faculty, staff and students.

TBA Campus Diversity Needs Assessment

Religious Intolerance
“There’s a level of hatred and
animosity that’s shocking. I’ve been
doing this for 31 years and I have never
seen such hostility toward Muslim
workers….”
Mary Jo O’Neill, EEOC Attorney Phoenix
New York Times, 9/23/2010
 It’s

only a cap!

…or is it?
 Religious Intolerance?
The question: Do universities discriminate
against religious conservatives? Some
professors and students say they do…

“Christian Academics Cite Hostility On Campus”

National Public Radio, 8/3/2010
 Religious diversity?

Americans are slowly becoming less Christian

and in recent decades the challenge to
Christianity in America
does not come from other world religions [but]
from a rejection of all organized religions.

Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, 2008

 Enhancing empathy exercise: Religion

Imagine that you awoke this morning and you had

converted from being Christian or Jewish to Islam,
or from being a Muslim or a Christian to Judaism.
 How would people treat you differently: in your
community, at school, at work, on your team?
 How might family or friends treat you differently?
 What opportunities might open or close for you?
 What rewards might or might not come your way?
 What other positive or negative changes might you
experience?
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Issues
 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Issues
In the past forty years, higher
education has made great strides in
building campus and classroom spaces
that are more fully welcoming of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,
and Queer (LGBTQ) people, as well as
of academic explorations related to
gender and sexuality….
And yet…
Students, staff, professors, or
administrators who identify as LGBT
report significant harassment at their
colleges and discomfort with the
overall campus climate….
Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/14/2010
LGBT are “among the most despised
groups in the United States today….”
Blumenfeld, 2003
Gays As the Domestic al-Qaeda?!?

“They are the biggest threat that

our nation has, even more so than
terrorism or Islam…."
Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern, 2008
Homophobia in Intercollegiate Athletics

In a survey of more than 50 current and

former college women’s basketball
players, 55 percent answered “true”
when asked if sexual orientation was
an underlying topic of conversation
with college recruiters.
ESPN The Magazine January 27, 2010
Some women’s basketball programs
push their “family environment” and
implicit heterosexuality as part of a
consciously negative campaign aimed at
other programs’ perceived sexual slant.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/31/2011
 Intergenerational Perspectives

53% of all Americans believe same sex

couples should have the right to marry.

CBS News poll March 2013

>71% of first-year college students believe

same sex couples should have the right to
marry.
UCLA Freshman Survey, Fall 2012
What about my own personal
beliefs or religious views?
 The responsibility of your choice:

To support your institution’s mission,

vision, values, and policies…
Diversity and inclusivity
are about understanding…

not necessarily agreeing.

 Creating just institutions
Seeking social justice for LGBTQ people
is a matter of creating institutions that are
more just for everyone—that eschew all
types of discrimination, invite investment
and engagement, and offer opportunities
for everyone to succeed.
“Making Education Inclusive: LGBTQ Contexts”
Diversity & Democracy, Winter 2012
 Enhancing empathy exercise:
Sexual orientation
If you are heterosexual, imagine that you awoke this
morning and, if you are male, you are gay; if you are
female, you are lesbian.

• How would people treat you differently in your

community, at school, at work, on your team?

• How might family or friends treat you differently?

• What opportunities might open or close for you?

• What rewards might or might not come your way?

• What other changes might you experience?

Ethnic and Racial Issues
Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

If current population trends

continue, minority group members
will be 54% of US population in
2050 compared to 24% in 1990.

US Census Bureau
 Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

English language learners are the

fastest-growing population in
American schools. Their numbers,
estimated at 5.5 million today, are
projected to grow to one in four K-12
students by 2025.

Diversity Learning K-12

 A Challenge in Diversity Work

Efforts to teach about diverse groups

can lead to stereotyping.
 Asian Pacific American Groups

Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Guamanian

Hawaiian Hmong Japanese Korean Laotian
Pakistani Samoan Thai Vietnamese
Philippines: 7000 islands
100 languages
Principle: Diversity in Diversity
 Diversity in Diversity: Black

Is that “Black” person African American, an

African international student, or from a
West Indian immigrant family?

As with all groups, it is important to make

distinctions based on socio-economic class,
gender, and other qualities.
 A post-racial America?
• Racial attitudes toward African-Americans
have worsened since the election of
President Barack Obama.
• 51 percent of whites now express explicit
anti-black attitudes, compared with 48
percent in 2008.
Stanford University, University of Michigan,
University of Chicago poll for AP, 2012
 Read between the lines…
Here is how the Salt Lake Tribune delivered
the news:

An Associated Press poll finds, a slight

majority of Americans now express
prejudice toward blacks whether they
recognize those feelings or not….
Terry Shropshire, Rolling Out, 0/29/2012
 Who’s “American?”
An Associated Press poll finds,
a slight majority of Americans now
express prejudice toward blacks
whether they recognize those feelings
or not….
Diversity in Diversity: Latino/Hispanic
• Twenty Spanish and Portuguese speaking
countries in the Western Hemisphere
• Often “Latino” is used in contrast to others
who are not Spanish speaking
• Often identify based on country of origin
(e.g., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba)
 A post-racial America?

An AP survey done in 2011,

52 percent of non-Hispanic whites
expressed anti-Latino attitudes.
 Cubans: White or Black
• 85 % of Cuban Americans identify as
white.
• A function of the skewed nature of the
migration out of Cuba socially and
economically.
• By and large the white elite of the
island fled Castro’s revolution to a far
greater extent than the black lower
classes.
“The Case of White Cubans,” Discover, 4/15/12
All ethnic groups in our country
are an aggregate of many distinct
subgroups.
Who’s Italian?
 Who’s Italian?

• Veneziano
• Milanese
• Siciliana
• Piemontesi
• Liguriano

In the US? “Italian”

People from the same ethnic or
racial group are also “diverse” in
terms of socio-economic status,
education, age, sexual orientation,
individual experiences, or
disposition.
 Developing Cross Cultural
Competence

Addressing Some Diversity Issues

Questions?
Comments?
Attention to diversity might even be
perceived as divisive and inhibiting
community….

Whites don’t want to learn about

racism, nor men about sexism, or
heterosexuals about heterosexism,
especially if they have worked hard to
improve their class position….

Alan Johnson, 2006

Teaching White Students about
Racism: The Search for White Allies
and the Restoration of Hope

Beverly Daniel Tatum

http://web-prod.spu.edu/depts/csfd/documents/teachingwhitestudentsaboutracism.pdf
White students often struggle with strong
feelings of guilt when they become aware of
the pervasive racism. Even when they feel
their own behavior has been
nondiscriminatory.
These feelings are uncomfortable and can
lead white students to resist learning
about race and racism. And who can
blame them?
White students often struggle with strong
feelings of guilt when they become aware of
the pervasive racism. Even when they feel
their own behavior has been
nondiscriminatory.
These feelings are uncomfortable and can
lead white students to resist learning
about race and racism. And who can
blame them? If learning about racism
means seeing oneself as one of the bad
guys….
Beverly Tatum, 1994
 It’s not personal
As a white, male, nondisabled, middle class
heterosexual, I do know that in some ways
these words are about me…

But in equally important ways the words are

not about me because they name something
larger than me, something I didn’t create or
invent but that was passed on to me as a
legacy of being born into this society.

Johnson 2006
Understanding White Identity Development

A person must become aware of

her/his Whiteness, learn to accept
Whiteness as an important part of
her/himself, and to internalize a
realistically positive view of what it
means to be white.
Janet Helms, 1992
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
• Contact stage
• Disintegration stage
• Reintegration stage
• Pseudo-independent stage
• Immersion/Emersion
• Autonomy
Helms, 1992
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Contact stage
• A primitive status characterized by denial of
obliviousness to White privilege. Thus when
this status is dominant in a White person,
she or he will react to racial stimuli (e.g.,
discussion about racism) with avoidance
• No acknowledgement of the reality of racism
in society, they take no action to understand
their own privilege or work toward creating a
more just society.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Disintegration stage
• Characterized by disorientation, guilt,
and anxiety as the realities of racism
seem to break through the
obliviousness of the contact stage.
• The individual is caught between
wanting to be accepted by the
normative (White) group and at the
same time experiencing a moral
dilemma over treating/considering
people of color as inferior to Whites.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Disintegration stage
• One solution to mitigating the anxiety
of this stage is to re-embrace the
ideology of the normative White group
and its racist social pressure.
• If a person in disintegration adopts this
solution to dealing with her or his
ambivalence and anxiety, the
reintegration stage has been entered.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Reintegration stage
• Represents the purest racist status in
this model.
• Negative conditions associated with
minority individuals are thought to
reflect their own failings or lack of
effort.
• The residual feelings of anxiety and
guilt from the previous status are now
transformed into anger and fear of
minority group individuals
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Pseudo-independent stage
• Acknowledgement of White responsibilities
for past and ongoing racism. These
individuals are not comfortable with a
racist stance and begin the search for a
new White identity.
• Attention is directed more toward
dissatisfaction with other Whites, not a
deep level of personal self-analysis with
regard to their own socialized racism.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Immersion/Emersion
• Individuals immerse themselves in
the search for accurate information
about race and a deeper
understanding of their own racial
socializations.
• Individuals might be involved in
social activism to fight racism.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Emersion
involves a withdrawal from the
previous frantic search for a new
identity that is characteristic of
immersion and the embracing of a
community of White people where one
can be rejuvenated and empowered in
continuing one’s identity development.
 White Identity Development:
A stage model
Autonomy
• The autonomous person is cognitively
complex and flexible and may avoid life
options that involve participation in
racial oppression.
• Have the capacity to relinquish White
privilege.
 Identity Development

Autonomy
The autonomous person is
humanistic and involved in
activism regarding many forms of
oppression (e.g., fighting sexism,
ageism, homophobia).
A broader understanding of “white”
I first began to perceive that "white
man," as commonly used, means
complexion only secondarily; primarily
it described attitudes and actions. In
America, "white man" meant specific
attitudes and actions toward the black
man, and toward all other non-white
men.
Malcolm X, The Autobiography
 Seven kinds of diversity
“Otherness” “ism”
• Race/ethnicity • Racism/ethnocentris
• Gender m
• Religion • Sexism
• Sexual Orientation • Religious oppression
• Socio-economic • Heterosexism
status
• Classism
• Age
• Physical/Mental
• Ageism
Ability • Ableism
 Oppressed and oppressing
• Most of us will find that we are both dominant
and targeted at the same time [but] the targeted
identities hold our attention and the dominant
identities go unexamined
• We assume the targeted identity to be the
primary cause of all oppression, forgetting
other distortions around difference, some of
which we are ourselves practicing.
“Age, Race, Class & Sex: Women Defining Difference
Audre Lord, 1995
Comments

Questions

Effective activities
 Diversity, Inclusivity & Civility:
Developing & Enhancing Students'
Cultural Competence

Part 2: Thursday
October 10 ~ 3:00-4:30pm EDT
www.tbrownassociates.com
tom@tbrownassociates.com