Part 9 of 10
9 Walk Your students through the steps
of Accepting their Identity
Classroom lectures and activities
that get students to hold a mirror up to themselves are always helpful. It allows students to embrace who they are
but it also enables them to begin to think about how their journey is different
from those around them. I have a
colleague who shared this incredible activity with me, you may have heard variations
of it. Students are placed into groups
and from there they are given supplies and asked to draw a picture. One group has all the supplies needed to
complete this task. They have markers of every imaginable color, they have
paper, stickers, etc. The other group
has a couple markers and a smaller sheet of paper. The last group has a single crayon and two
sheets of paper that they will somehow have to conjoin for it to be large
enough, as per the assignment guidelines.
As they work, you the educator work as a confederate, giving the highest
praise to the first group. The second
group receives minimal praise while the last group gets constructive criticism that is negligent to accept their disadvantage.
After the drawings are presented ask the students how they felt working
on this assignment. Usually the students
in the last group are fairly upset they weren’t able to showcase their best
work, in some instances they won’t even finish the drawing because they feel
hopeless that they will be able to succeed. Interestingly, the first group that
had the most materials fails to notice that the other groups were given
different supplies. It’s a great way to
introduce privilege and help students understand how blinding it can be.
I always say that this is the first
step because as we know when it comes to identity whether we are in the nondominant or the dominant group we were not always
self-aware. There was a moment or series
of interactions that exposed this to us.
What we do after this is pivotal.
The
following are the steps that occur when we are developing our identities. I have complied it in a chart but the content
comes from, Communication in the Real World: An Introduction
to Communication Studies an open
source textbook that you can access in full from the following site,
Nondominant Identity Development
4
stages of nondominant identity N. Martin
and Thomas K. Nakayama, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 5th ed.
(Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 173–76.
Stage
1
|
Unexamined
Identity
|
Marked both by a lack
of awareness of or lack of interest in one’s identity. This stage ends as a person’s lack of
interest in their own identity is replaced by an investment in a dominant
group’s identity.
|
Stage
2
|
Conformity
|
When an individual
internalizes the values and norms of the dominant group. This is done in an effort to avoid being
perceived as different. Individuals may attempt to assimilate into the
dominant culture by changing their appearance, nonverbal behaviors, their
verbal and vocal practices, their language, or even their name.
|
Stage
3
|
Resistance
& Separation
|
An
individual with a nondominant identity may shift away from the conformity of
the previous stage to engage in actions that challenge the dominant identity
group. Individuals in this stage may also actively try to separate themselves
from the dominant group, choosing instead to limit their interaction with
those who share their nondominant identity.
|
Stage
4
|
Integration
|
This marks
a period where individuals are able to reach a balance between their
nondominant identities but also appreciating the other identities as well. While anger in regards to their mistreatment
from the dominant identity members may persist this frustration towards
prejudice and discrimination is refocused.
For instance to work towards social justice.
|
Dominant Identity Development
Dominant
identity development consists of five stages. Judith N. Martin and Thomas K.
Nakayama,Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 5th ed. (Boston, MA:
McGraw-Hill, 2010), 177–80.
Stage 1
|
Unexamined
|
Groups may be aware of the differences between themselves and
marginalized group members but they may not understand that there is a hierarchy
or they don’t believe the role they play in it.While nondominant group members must understand their identity
Due to Prejudice or discrimination, They experience, dominant Group members
can remain in the unexamined stage for a long time.
|
|
Stage 2
|
Acceptance
|
The dominant Group Member will passively or actively accept people are treated differently
than others but doesn’t do anything either internally
or externally to address it. It simply seems like the
norm. Things like, “I know
that racism exists, but my parents taught me to be a good person and see
everyone as equal.” While This is a nice sentiment,
it takes more than viewing everyone as equal to change anything.People in
this stage May also insist
that “minorities are exaggerating their circumstances or whining and just need to work harder” or “get over it.” People will remain in this stage until they are repeatedly presented
with information that challenges their beliefs.
|
|
Stage 3
|
Resistance Stage
|
Acknowledges the advantages
they are given and feels shameful and guilty about it.
In order to move on from this stage one must do more
than wallow or try to reach out to nondominant group members to apologize instead, sharing what
they’ve learned with others who share their dominant identity allows them to progress to the next stage.
|
|
Stage 4
|
Redefinition
|
Revise negative views of their
identity held in the previous stage and begin to acknowledge their privilege
and try to use the power they are granted to work for. They realize that they
can claim their dominant identity as heterosexual, able-bodied, male, white,
and so on, and perform their identity in ways that counter norms.
|
|
Stage 5
|
Integration
|
People can integrate their
dominant identity into all aspects of their life, finding opportunity to educate
others about privilege while also being a responsive ally to people in
nondominant identities. (becoming a
true ally)
|
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