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CHAPTER 4 Some Issues, Questions, and Problems Surrounding the Black Self-concept: Group Identity The basic tenet of black consciousnessis that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him aforeigner in the country ofhis birth and reduce his basic human dignity. -STEVE BIKO Ihave provided support for the position that, collectively,African Americans have a positive sense of self-worth. This condition is essentially the same across different age groups, and, for the most part, the same for males and females. The exception is that males have a more positive sense of self when one evaluatestheir self-esteem by the negativelyworded scale.While those who have more education and those with greater income tend to have a higher self-esteem,eventhosewith the lowestincome and the least education demonstrate a high senseofself-worth. In this chapter,we investigatesimilar issues but with respect to group identity Although the African American may have his or her self-worth intact, does this translate into identifying with the group?The importance of group identity has been noted by many scholars and activists. It is an element of an individual's overall self-concept. The central idea is that having a favorable,or at least untainted, view of the group is crucial to any attempts to bring about social change. Phinney (1990) argues that the nature and substanceofthe attitudesindividualshave toward their group areofparticular importance to the psychological well-being of culturally, economically, and socially oppressed groups. A number of scholarshave maintained that self-worth and group identity are highly related. In fact, in some conceptualizations, the distinction is considered meaningless. Many others accepting the veracity of the distinction 86 EXAMINATIONS OF THE BLACK SELF maintain that African Americans may have high self-worth, but have hostility and contempt for Africans as a group. That is, the individual may have no problems with the "I"(the self),but serious reservations about the "We" (the goup). Some have even said that frequently when African Americans exhibited low self-esteem, it was because the measure they used focused on the individuals' feelings about the group. To use Cross's (1991) distinction, the assessment of "personal identity" was confused with "reference group orientation." With respect to the latter, he says that it entails feelings of being wanted, accepted, appreciated, and affiliated,with strong ties to black people, black culture, and the general black condition. Taking the strategy used to investigate self-worth, Iwill attempt to clarify the use of the term group identity or related terms in the literature as well as my own use of the term group identity. Such a wide range of concepts falls under the rubric of group identity. As in the case of self-esteem, there may be many different concept names used to label the same social phenomenon. Some commonly used concept names are: racial esteem,black identity, black autonomy, black militancy, black consciousness, and African consciousness. Under the general heading of reference group orientation, Cross (1991) specified several subcategories, which include group identity, racial identity, racial awareness, racial ideology, race evaluation, race esteem, and racial selfidentification . This general category applied to Africans in the United States provides information about one's cultural frame and one's worldview. With little elaboration, three associated categories were thought to represents blacks' attitudes toward different aspects of race relations: (1) black cultural and political consciousness, (2) black alienation from white society, and (3)attitudes related to militancy (National Research Council, 1989). While categorizing and labeling different aspects of what we call group identity has been problematic, its definition has also loomed as a source of confusion. As there is no commonly held concept name for this aspect of the self-concept, there are also no agreed-upon definitions of the phenomenon. In some instances, no theoretical definition is given at all; however, there are several insightful exceptions. Identity has been conceptualized as a component of an individual's overall self-concept. It incorporates several personal attitudes, feelings, characteristics, and behaviors, and the identification with a larger group of people who share those characteristics. If an African American, at an early stage, is enveloped by a support system that is both positive and black-oriented, then a strong sense of this identity is likely to be manifested. It is exemplified in an awareness of and attachment to an African cultural base, a keen desire to ensure the collective survival of African people and their institutions, and the participation in struggles to thwart any...

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