THEORY PAPER #2: THE EFFECT OF CULTURAL WEALTH AND CRT ON IDENTITY

Theory Paper #2: The Effect of Cultural Wealth and CRT on Identity

Benjamin Teurlay

Seattle University
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Analysis

Cross and Fhagen-Smith’s (2001) model of Black Identity Development is composed of

six sectors. The first four stages, Infancy and Childhood, Preadolescence, Adolescence, and

Early Adulthood, revolve around black people's exposure to black social networks, families

racial culture, education on black identities, and understanding of historical events which could

lead up to a point where they create a black self-concept. Low-race salience, high-race salience

or internalized racism are the individual’s identities types that emerge based upon their

perspective of black identity. The fifth sector, Adult Nigrescence, shows the progression of how

an event revolving conflicts around black identity can transition individuals to reach a

commitment to social justice advocacy for the black community and other identities. The final

sector, Nigrescence Recycling, is the reaction to questioning a pre-existing black self-concept

and the ability to reach new multidimensional understandings of their racial identity.

Kohlberg’s (1981) stages of Moral Identity are composed of three levels and six stages.

Level one, preconventional, contains the Heteronomous and Instrumental Stages which focus on

individual interests. Level two, conventional, includes the Interpersonally Normative and Social

System which focuses on societal approval and laws. Level three, postconventional, includes the

stages of Human Rights and Social Welfare in addition to Universality, Reversible, and

Prescriptive General Ethical Principles which is when individuals reach a point of self chosen

principles.

Yosso’s (2005) Critical Race Theory (CRT) highlights five tenets that inform systematic

change, which are intercentricity of race with other forms of subordination, challenge to

dominant ideology, commitment to social justice, centrality of experiential knowledge, and

utilization of interdisciplinary. Yosso also states six forms of capitals that are aspirational,
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navigational, social, linguistic, familial, and resistant which contribute to community cultural

wealth.

Synthesis

Yosso and Kohlberg both focus on looking beyond laws and policies to find more moral

solutions to our complex world. Yosso highlights how laws and policies benefits white males,

and in response to CRT can provide systematic change for oppressed marginalized identities.

Kohlberg’s model shows a transition from conventionality which is based on morality of law

towards post-conventionality where individuals separate themselves from the same laws and

expectations to create personal values. Therefore, development of morality, both personally and

to our current system requires a critical look at our flawed laws and policies that negatively

affect marginalized groups.

However, Yosso’s and Kohlberg’s ability to develop beyond the point of systemic issues

creates an ethical dilemma for professionals in the field. How do professionals represent a

university that has policies that negatively affects students from marginalized backgrounds? In

addition, how do professionals uphold and enforce policies that they disagree with and can not

change? I have and will continue to advocate for changes of unethical policies and advocate for

students that are facing discriminations from campus structures. However, above and beyond

these efforts, I’m still struggling with how to handle unethical policies on college

campuses.

A commonality among Yosso’s and Cross and Fhagen-Smith’s work is the emphasis on

development based around cultural assets that are gained through communities of color. Cross

and Fhagen-Smith point out that family factors, social networks, and historical events guide

children to black socialization and can later lead to high-race salience. Three of Yosso’s capitals
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are familial which creates a commitment to a family’s community, social which refers to a

community's network and resources, and linguistic which includes the expression of family

stories and history. These three capitals are closely related to human ecologies of black children,

mentioned by Cross and Fhagen-Smith, that are linked to black people having better

understanding racism and their racial identities. This suggests that aspects of cultural wealth are

a key factor in black people gaining high-race salience.

A weakness that links Yosso’s and Cross and Fhagen-Smith’s work is the lack of

direction for students to develop identity or community cultural wealth that may not have access

to the same level of cultural capital and have low-race salience or internalized racism.

Professionals can provide on-campus resources including clubs relating to identity, multicultural

centers, or campus events relating to their identity in order to immerse themselves in a

community. Additionally, professionals can also advise students by asking them questions in

order to have students reflect on their racial identities. Through these avenues students can gain

cultural wealth and a higher race salience.

Reflection

One aspect that's impacted my identities, is that I was part-time homeschooled by my

stay-at-home mother throughout middle and high school. This provided me with advantages that

other students had difficulties attaining. Through my mother’s homeschooling and my sister,

who’s a student affairs professional, I gained massive family support, a drive for a higher

education, and assistance when applying to college and finding campus resources. As illustrated

by Yosso, I received familial, aspirational, and navigational capital. Living in a predominantly

white, upper-middle class area provided a shield or, as Gallagher (1997) expresses, color-

blindness from an understanding of the impacts of identity on our current society.

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The biggest paradigm shift from this mindset was observing the perspective of

administration at Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) as an Area Coordinator (AC). For

example, I remember a member of the administration fighting to make a portion of an on-campus

recreational field into a “confederate statue graveyard” after the controversy in Charlottesville,

North Carolina. The argument was made that “the graveyard” would preserve history but this

was, as illustrated by Perry (1968), a dualistic thought process that did not account for the impact

on both campus’ climate and the comfortability of students of color. At this point, I no longer felt

the responsibility to follow the strict directives of the university's administration. They

previously, interfered with multicultural centers programing around sexual orientation, fired staff

that supported LGBTQ+ and sexual assault advocacy on campus, and expressed that support of

multiple social justice topic should be represented by student leaders rather than staff. I began to

transition from stage four of Kohlberg’s theory, Social System which focuses on societal

approval and laws, to stage five, Human Rights and Social Welfare, by creating my own set of

five values. One of these values was intentionally, which I utilized to insert extra diversity

activities in my RA training, create a new programming model that promoted educational social

justice events, and became the advisor of a bystander intervention club that promoted student

leader avocation. This created more conversations around diversity and encouraged more student

leaders of different diversity groups to apply for the RA position and join the bystander

intervention club.

Currently, I realize that I have a small understanding of people of color and their

development of identity, systemic challenges, and growth through the college experience. As a

straight, white male, whose experienced minimal oppression and few multicultural perspectives,

I feel as if I don’t have the proper experience to provide quality support to marginalized students.
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I hope to utilize more on and off campus events to gain a greater multicultural competency as

expressed by Pope (2004). I will also refer to coursework, such as the model of Black Identity

and Development, in order to provide support to students systematically and directly. Through

these methods, I hope to provide better information to other white students about handling their

privilege, providing more training sessions on diversity for student leaders, and become a better

quality resource for marginalized students in order to help them gain more community cultural

wealth and guide them to a greater understanding of their identities.

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References

Gallagher, C.A. (1997). White racial formation: Into the 21st century. In R. Delgado, and J. Stefancic

(Eds.), Critical White studies: Looking behind the mirror (pp.6-11). Temple, PA: Temple

University Press

Patton, L.D., Renn, K.A., Guido, F.M., & Quaye, S.J. (2016). Student development in college: Theory,

research, and practice (3rd edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Pope, R.L., Reynolds, A.L., & Mueller, J.A. (2004). Multicultural competence in student affairs. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race discussion of community cultural wealth.

Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-82