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US Born African American and Black Women in the Process of Liberation from Internalized Racism

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US Born African American and Black Women in the Process of Liberation from Internalized Racism University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 5-13-2011 A Process of Becoming: U.S. Born African American and Black Women in the Process of Liberation From Internalized Racism Tanya Ovea Williams University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Tanya Ovea, "A Process of Becoming: U.S. Born African American and Black Women in the Process of Liberation From Internalized Racism" (2011). Open Access Dissertations. 406. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/406 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PROCESS OF BECOMING: U.S. BORN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND BLACK WOMEN IN A PROCESS OF LIBERATION FROM INTERNALIZED RACISM A Dissertation Presented by TANYA OVEA WILLIAMS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2011 Social Justice Education Program © Copyright by Tanya Ovea Williams 2011 All Rights Reserved A PROCESS OF BECOMING: U.S. BORN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND BLACK WOMEN IN THE PROCESS OF LIBERATION FROM INTERNALIZED RACISM A Dissertation Presented by TANYA OVEA WILLIAMS Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________ Bailey W. Jackson III, Chair ___________________________________ Amber Douglas, Member ___________________________________ Benita J. Barnes, Member ___________________________________ Christine B. McCormick, Dean School of Education DEDICATION For those who came before me, my grandparents, King Curtis Bass Tiny Bass Henry “Pete” Harris Effie Lee Harris I pray that I have done you proud. And to those who will come after me, my niece and nephew, Emanuel Alexander and Ariana Elise Wooten I hope I have lit the path well. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Though I have done the dissertation “by myself”, I have thankfully never been alone in this process. Ancestors, family, friends, and mentors have held my hand as I have made my way through the forest-like areas, and gently pushed me up the many mountains that I faced on this long journey. My thanks are many, they are heartfelt, and will never be adequate. I feel in awe of Creator God, the Divine, the Universe - that I would be gifted with such an opportunity as this one. My gratitude overflows. I want to acknowledge my ancestors, who fought to survive in a system of supremacy and racism the best way they knew how…by never giving up and doing their best to survive. I reflected on and listened to your voices, your energy, and your modeling during this process. Thank you for your wisdom and model of perseverance. Thanks Mommy, Daddy, and Tina (Ricky, Emanuel, and Ariana, too!) for always supplying love and endless encouragement. Thank you for always asking “How is it going?” even if the process didn’t always make sense and never giving up on me. Thank you to Julie for being a wonderful best friend – supporting, loving, crying with, as opposed to, laughing at my life struggles. Your CONSTANT encouragement and inspiration has consistently pulled me through those tough moments. Many thanks go to my committee, Bailey W. Jackson, Amber Douglas, and Benita J. Barnes for your mentorship and assistance in getting my thoughts to the page. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge and appreciate the Social Justice Education Program faculty for your leadership, patience, encouragement and insight these many years. v A special thanks goes to “my family” in the Valley. You all took me in, loved me, listened to me and supported me when I was 1900 miles away from my Texas family. You are the textbook definition of chosen family, and I see you as a gift from the Divine. The Schmidt/Dunns (Sheri, Stephen, and Jason), Elaine, Diane, Molly, Chris, Linda, …and the list goes on and on. To my Mt. Holyoke College colleagues and students - thank you to my many colleagues who picked up the slack as I worked to finish this project and thank you to the students for your patience. Special thanks goes to colleague/friends - Kris, Gladys and Andrea. Thank you for listening, willingness to support this journey, and for your constant encouragement. And Liz, even from a distance, we finished what we started! Congratulations, my friend! Your never-ending support helped me make it through. To my LeaderShape family, thank you for reminding 2-3 times a year why I was willing to undertake such a project as this one. Our shared vision of a just, caring and thriving world and my individual vision of a world free of oppression propelled me with each session I co-lead and each page that I wrote. And lastly, to the participants in this study, thank you for your honesty, your sisterhood, and your strength. For a long time I thought I was alone in this struggle, you told me otherwise. I thank you for providing a mirror to look into and stories to be inspired by. I pray that I have represented you well and continue to clear a path for our healing to enter. vi ABSTRACT A PROCESS OF BECOMING: U.S. BORN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND BLACK WOMEN IN A PROCESS OF LIBERATION FROM INTERNALIZED RACISM MAY 2011 TANYA OVEA WILLIAMS, B.A., TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY M.S., TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Bailey W. Jackson III Internalized racism is a contributing factor to the inability of African Americans to overcome racism. (Speight, 2007) Because this is a cognitive phenomenon over which individuals can have agency, it is important to study, understand, and seek out ways that African Americans are able to gain a liberatory perspective in the midst of a racist society. By using colonization psychology and post-traumatic slave psychology to define the phenomenon, and Jackson’s Black identity development model theory to ground and analyze participants’ process of liberation, this study used phenomenological in-depth interviewing to understand the experiences of African American and Black women who have gained more consciousness of their internalized racism. The researcher interviewed 11 U.S. Born African American and Black women for an hour and a half to gain their understanding of internalized racism and liberation. The study found that Black and African American women in a process of liberation 1) move from experiencing lack of control to an experience of having agency; 2) gain agency from developing greater knowledge and pride of a positive black identity; 3) replace negative socialization with a vii knowledge of self; and 4) are supported in their liberation by a systemic analysis of racism. The study also found that 1) internalized racism and liberation are complexly defined phenomena, 2) participants continued to practice manifestations of internalized racism while practicing a liberatory consciousness, which confirms the theories of the cyclical nature of identity, and 3) racial identity development models offer a framework for understanding a transition from internalized racism towards liberation but lack clarity about how transformation actually occurs. viii CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... v ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 Purpose................................................................................................................... 3 Significance............................................................................................................ 5 Research Questions................................................................................................ 6 Scope...................................................................................................................... 7 My Interest............................................................................................................. 9 Organization of the Dissertation .......................................................................... 12 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 13 Internalized Racism and Connection to Oppression Theory ............................... 14 A General Definition of Internalized Racism ...................................................... 15 Process of Internalized Racism............................................................................ 17 Patterns and Manifestations of Internalized Racism............................................ 18 Psychology of Slavery ......................................................................................... 20 Cultural Trauma and Collective Memory..................................................... 20 Psychology of Slavery Defined .................................................................... 22 Psychology of Slavery and Internalized Racism .......................................... 23 Limited
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