William E. Cross, Jr.

William E. Cross, Jr. is a professor and head of the doctoral program in social-personality psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Biography

Cross earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught at Cornell University, Penn State, and the University of Massachusetts before his current position at The Graduate Center.

Nigrescence

Cross developed a 5 phase developmental theory of acquisition of Black identification. He called this theory Nigrescence, which is translated as: “the process of becoming Black." The five stages progress as follows:
#Pre-encounter
#Encounter
#Immersion
#Emersion
#Internalization

The first stage refers to the time in one’s life when he/she are unaware of his/her race or racial implications.

The second stage refers to the first occurrence of racial awareness. This stage takes place earlier in life among racial minorities than for the racial majority or the advantaged group (in terms of the definition of racism: the “superior” group). This is often the moment that a child remembers as the first time he/she was treated differently because of the color of his/her skin.

The third stage is a time when a person (often in response to racial encounter) takes on all the identifying elements of his/her race. One becomes very much involved in being a member of his/her group and embracing all the behaviors, characteristics and features that are associated with being a member of that race. From a social stand point, one will spend time with those in his/her own race to the exclusion of members of other races.

The fourth stage is the counterpart to the third stage. In the fourth stage one comes out of the absolute immersion and comes to find different behaviors, characteristics and features that they may want to take on from another race. Socially one begins to become more comfortable with and value relationships with members of other races.

The final stage is the reaching of a balance. The balance involves the summation of choices and experiences one has throughout his/her identification process. A successful attainment of this process and the arrival at this final stage could be described as a level of comfort with one’s own race as well as the race of those around them.

Throughout one’s life one may revisit different stages and repeat steps of this process and reformulate their racial identity and opinions. Repeating stages is not a regression but often a part of greater process of integrating new information and reevaluating ideas from a more mature standpoint.

Published works

*"The Negro to Black Conversion Experience" (1971)
*"Shades of Black : diversity in African-American identity" (1991)

External links

*http://web.gc.cuny.edu/psychology/faculty/wcross.htm