Dr. Savitri Dixon-Saxon

The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. (Lorde, 1984)

Preface: The late poet and author Audre Lorde left a phenomenal body of work sharing with the world the heterogeneity of and commonalities in African American women’s experiences. A review of her work reveals a woman very sophisticatedly and adamantly trying to share with the world how vulnerable, yet powerful African American women were and are. The intersection of this power and vulnerability make for a group of women who are only narrowly understood. This lack of understanding contributes to ineffective or inadequate interventions for social activism, leadership development, and self-promotion.

We know that African American women are a part of two marginalized groups, African Americans and women. As we try to understand the identity development of African American women, we look for the postscripts about either women’s identity development or African American’s identity development.

We usually fail to attend the coexistence of these two developing identities over a life span. We argue about which identity is most salient for African American women, their racial identity or their identity as women. Both are always salient. Each part that is African American is woman, and each part that is woman is African American.

As we focus on our role in social change and particularly engage in conversations about poverty and consequently the poverty of poor women, most specifically African American women, we have to understand how these women develop these coexisting identities. It is not unusual for an African American woman at one time to be responsible for and to her spouse, her children, her parents, and her grandchildren. We can safely assume that the collective responsibilities to four generations make her at once vulnerable and powerful.

She is vulnerable because systems do not readily recognize her role in society and in her family. She is vulnerable, and consequently her family is vulnerable, because she has not lived her life in a vacuum and she is aware of society’s messages about who she is, what she can become, and whether her immutable characteristics measure up to society’s ideals.

She is vulnerable because her family and those who have role-modeled what she can be, like family and community members, have also interacted in a racist, sexist society and their responses to these systems are her most poignant blueprints. She is vulnerable because she is a consumer of systems and services that do not reflect her agenda. However, whether her identity is one of vulnerability or power is the difference between internalized oppression and positive self-definition.

Although the previously described dynamics and responsibilities do not apply to every African American woman, the illustration forces a better understanding of the relevance of all social policies for African American women. For this reason, our pursuit should be to understand how internalized oppression impacts the development of positive self-definition in an African American woman and consequently her ability to advocate for herself and influence the policies that impact her life (Dixon-Saxon, 2002).

Internalized oppression is the phenomenon of believing, as fact, the negative stereotypes that are ascribed on one’s group by members of a dominant group (Jordan, 1991). Largely an unconscious process, internalized oppression involves lowering expectations in the competency of other members of the group to which a person belongs and in one’s own self-efficacy, and it results in a loss of confidence, a loss of a sense of being powerful, and inactivity. Internalized oppression is not self-hatred. Self-hatred, in the case of African Americans, means a total and conscious devaluation of everything that is African American, including one’s appearance (Dixon-Saxon, 2002).

Positive self-definition is essentially claiming an identity for yourself and believing in your ability to not be limited in your efforts to change the world and the way you are reflected in it. Positive self-definition includes maintaining the identity publicly and privately and making choices that reflect that identity. At the most essential level, it is derived from one’s need to be an expert on herself, her needs (Dixon-Saxon, 2002), and what is required for her to feel fulfilled.

Both internalized oppression and positive self-definition are results of the person-environment interaction. However, one is a reflection of responses to the world in which the world is the primary reference and the other is a reflection of responses to the world in which the self, with sufficient knowledge and awareness of society’s messages and influences, is the primary reference. The sufficient knowledge and awareness of society’s messages and influences is what distinguishes positive self-definition from earlier stages of preconscious awareness.

Unlike some psychosocial identity-development theorists who pay little attention to this identity development until adolescence, I assert that both racial and gender identity development begin for African American girls as soon as they are born, essentially as soon as they begin to interact with the world. I also believe that African American girls are absent of internalized oppression or suboptimal identity about gender and race in the beginning of their lives, but they are aware of both. The distinguishing feature of psychosocial identity development at this stage compared to later stages of positive self-definition is that the young girls have the freedom to behave as they choose and are essentially self-defined, because there is no real understanding of limiting societal attitudes, responses, and expectations.

For this reason, it is not appropriate to say that internalized oppression and positive self-definition are polar opposites in the way that self-hatred and positive self-definition would be. Internalized oppression may very well be a part of the metamorphosis to positive self-definition.

In an effort to make positive social change, we must continue to examine the psychosocial identity development of African American women and develop interventions that reflect who they are. We must understand all things that foster internalized oppression and all things that foster positive self-definition. This means a critical examination of institutions, popular culture, media images, folklore, stereotypes, social policy, and all things that impact African American women. Internalized oppression and positive self-definition are two very crucial concepts to understanding how to foster African American women’s identity development, so that they can be successful agents of change in their own lives.

References
Dixon-Saxon, S. V. (2002). Assessing African American women’s attitudinal responses to racism and sexism: Revising the assessment of internalized oppression and positive self-definition in African American women. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, North Carolina State University.

Jordan, J. M. (1991). Counseling African American women: “Sister-friends.” In C. C. Lee & B. L. Richardson (Eds.), Issues in counseling: New approaches to diversity (pp. 51–63), Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling and Development.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.