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)
RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT MODELS
Although many such models exist, the three main models that deal with this most appropriately are known as:
1. The Cross Model of Psychological Nigrescence
2. Helms' White Identity Development Model
3....
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