Racial identity and racial identity formation are major components of my research interests. When I first started my doctoral process in 2005/2006 I was fascinated with culturally relevant pedagogy and how to foster a positive cultural identity in youth. This train of thought got me thinking about the becoming process of Blackness, which is called nigrescence (Cross). President Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance” is one book I have had on my to do list to apply the nigrescence framework to. Since then, our Forever FLOTUS, Michelle Obama has published a book with that title, Becoming! This was intriguing because her book’s theme fit within my focus on the becoming process.
Another scholar, Parham, extended Cross’s theory of nigrescence to include the life cycles of nigrescence (and not just the phases), while also applying the autobiographies of W.E.B. DuBois and Malcolm X to the nigrescence theoretical framework. I’m interested in analyzing more contermporary examples as well as a Black woman’s perspective.
Please feel free to join me in my reading and reflection journey documented here in my blog.