2. The Poverty & Inequality Report - The Stanford Center on Poverty & Inequality 2014
One of the country’s three federally-funded poverty centers - a nonpartisan
organization dedicated to monitoring trends in poverty and inequality….
The report provides a unified analysis that brings together evidence across seven key
domains, thereby allowing a global assessment of where problems exist.
• Labor Markets
• Poverty
• Safety Net
• Income Inequality
• Wealth Inequality
• Health Inequality
• Education
It is difficult not to be struck by the sheer number of indicators … for which the
current year is one of very worst over the period we have covered (13 years).
For Blacks, in every indicator category, this was the worst, second, third or, at best the
fourth worst year in terms of inequality.
Race remains and exceedingly powerful illusion.

3. Nope, we are not “post-race.”
We are not post-racism.
Such assertions are preposterous and
unworthy of our time.

4. • Is it possible to achieve post racism?
• Is achieving post-race necessary to
achieving post-racism?
• Is it possible to achieve post-race?
These ARE good questions, VERY worthy of
our time.

5. Is it possible to achieve post-race?
Yes it is.
And I want to introduce you to
some people who have.

6. • 54 years old
• Father of two
• Born in Costa Rica
• Raised in Dorchester, MA since
4yo
• Boston Public Schools through 6th
grade
• METCO, 7th-12th grades, Dover,
MA
• Wesleyan University – BA Psych
• BU School of Social Work - MSW
• Simmons School of Social Work –
Ph.D.
• Educator
• Phillips Academy Andover
• Lesley University
• Psychotherapist
Carlos Hoyt, Jr., LICSW, Ph.D.
Nominally Black adversely racialized race transcender

7. Beyond Zebra:
The Transaction,
Transposition,
Transgression
&
Transcendence
of Race

8. In the places I go there
are things that I see
That I never could spell if
I stopped with the Z.
I’m telling you this ‘cause
you’re one of my friends.
My alphabet starts
where your alphabet
ends.
-Geisel, 1955

9. In terms of theorizing, a number of the instruments reviewed
here were based on models conceptualizing more and less
“advanced” ways of experiencing one’s racial or ethnic identity.
But what happens beyond the highest or most optimal statuses
posited …?
Dr. Seuss’s On Beyond Zebra (Geisel, 1995) asks what kinds of
letters (and hence things and ideas) come after “Z.” Similarly, if
we hypothesized that there might be more [beyond our current
conceptualizations of racial identity], what might we find?
Interviewing people who have done a great deal of racial and
ethnic identity exploration, growth, and change over their
lifetimes could help shed light on what kinds of processes may
evolve.
-Fischer and Moradi, 2001

10. “My journey has taken me past constructions of
race, past constructions of mixed race, and into an
understanding of human difference that does not
include race as a meaningful category.”
-From Race and Mixed-Race: A Personal Tour. Spencer in Penn, 2002, p.10

11. BUT Rainer does most certainly recognize and
contend with racialization.
• Select
• Sort
• Attribute
• Essentialize
• Act
Rainier has ceased to hold a self-racialized sense of
self, but he is acutely race-conscious and a staunch
campaigner against racism and an advocate for
racial justice.

12. WHO ARE THE RACE TRANSCENDERS?
A Qualitative Exploration of Factors Contributing to Non-racial
Identity Development in Individuals Commonly Ascribed to
Black/African American, Biracial or Multiracial Identity Groups

13. Felix Von Luschan's chromatic scale for classifying skin color. Used
extensively throughout the first half of the 20th century in race studies.
Problematic because it was very inconsistent. Largely abandoned by the
early 1950s.
Can you find your skin color here? Can you find your identity here?

14. There is nothing more personal than identity
Do we look alike?
Are we the same race?

15. Precursor Research
Rockquemore’s study of biracial identity development
(1999 n=177)
1. Border – exclusively biracial. Neither black nor
white. (~60%)
1. Singular – exclusively black or white. (~20%)
1. Protean – “Well, shit, it depends on what day it is
and where I’m goin’.”? (~6%)
1. Transcendent?! (~14%)

16. Rob was adamant that race was a false categorization of humanity
and did not want to be thought of as a member of any racial
category whatsoever. Rob’s greatest desire was to be understood by
others as the unique individual he was, to be appreciated for his
particular gifts and talents, and not to be “pigeon-holed” into a pre-
formulated category that carried with it a multitude of assumptions
about the content of his character. Rob was not black, white, or
biracial. He was a musician, a thinker, a kind-hearted individual, a
good friend, a Catholic, and a hard-working student with dreams and
ambitions. For Rob, race had interfered with others perceiving his
authentic self, and he could see that it would continue to color how
others viewed him, his work, and his personal talents in the future.
…he didn’t see himself in any [racial category] and…he resented
being falsely stuffed into a rigid and unrepresentative typology or
being excluded as an “outlying case.”
-Rockquemore, Beyond Black 2002

17. Definition of a race transcendent self-understanding
• Consciously deny having any racial identity whatsoever
• Simply do not use race as a construct to understand the social world
or their relative place in it
• Don’t wish to be white, they are not bitter about being black; they
simply disavow race as part of their sense of self
• Not the typical color-blind ideology --are aware of how race
negatively affects the daily existence of people of color.
• Very likely experienced discrimination, yet they respond by
understanding those situations as part of a broad societal problem;
one in which they are deeply embedded, but not one that leads to
their subscription to racial identity.
-Rockquemore, 2002.

18. Much to my amazement,
delight, and relief, people
contacted me.

19. The Research Question
What are the factors that contribute to the development
of a non-racial identity formation in individuals commonly
ascribed to Black/African American, biracial or multiracial
racial identity groups and who, as such, are expected to
subscribe to a racial identity?
______________________________________
It is assumed that in a society where racial group
membership is emphasized, the development of racial
identity will occur in some form in everyone.
-Tatum, 1992, p.9

20. Black Racial Identity Development Model
1. Preencounter
The African American … individual seeks to assimilate and be accepted
by Whites, and actively or passively distances him/herself from other
Blacks.
2. Encounter
Faced with the reality that he or she cannot truly be White, the
individual is forced to focus on his or her identity as a member of a
group targeted by racism.
3. Immersion/Emersion
… the simultaneous desire to surround oneself with visible symbols of
one’s racial identity and an active avoidance of symbols of Whiteness.

21. 4. Internalization
… willing to establish meaningful relationships with Whites who
acknowledge and are respectful of his or her self-definition
5. Internalization-Commitment
… find ways to translate their “personal sense of Blackness into a
plan of action or a general sense of commitment” to the concerns
of Blacks as a group, which is sustained over time ….
Cross (1971, 1978, 1991) from Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The Application of
Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom by Beverly Daniel Tatum in Geismar, K. &
Nicoleau, G. (1993), Teaching for Change. Harvard Educational Review. Cambridge, MA.

22. Nowhere in racial identity theory is there room
for or representation of a person who
1. Feels pretty good about him- or herself
2. Has no desire to be White
3. Has no desire to be Black
4. Has no desire to be racialized in any manner
whatsoever.

23. Key Characteristics of the Participants
T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7* T8* T9* T10
Sex M M F F M M F F F M
Age 34 42 29 18 55 57 39 26 23 53
SES WC LMC MC MC MC MC M-UC MC MC LMC
Edu BA PhD BA 2yrBA PhD PhD MD BA BA BA
Geo USA USA SoAfr USA USA USA Can USA USA USA
Diversity High Bi Low Low Bi High Bi Low Low MixLow MixLow MixHig
h
Low
Trn Since All Life All Life All Life All Life Since
35
All Life All Life All Life College Since
33
Pheno
SES = Socioeconomic status – WC = working class; LMC = lower middle class; MC = middle class; UC =
upper class
Edu = Education level
Geo = where living at time of interview
Diversity = level of racial diversity in family of origin. Low = little variation in immediate family; Bi =
one black, one white parent; Mix = racial mixture beyond Black and White
Trn Since = How long held a non-racial sense of identity.
Pheno = Phenotype in terms of skin color (using Von Luschan’s scale)
* Transgressive but not fully transcendent

24. Narratives of
Race Transgression
and
Race Transcendence

25. Semi-structured Interview Categories

26. The distinguishing aspects of the process that emerged from the
narratives include:
1. Exposure to messages about race and racial identity
2. Syntonic or dystonic reactions to messages about race and
racial identity
3. Critical assessment of messages about race and racial
identity
4. Catalyzing or crystalizing experiences leading to personal
synthesis
5. Adoption, adaptation or abnegation of messages about
race and racial identity
6. Ramifications of a non-racial sense of identity

27. Process of Race-syntonic, Race-transgressive or Race-transcendent Identity Development
Exposure to messages about race normative identity. Typically the presumption of racial group
identification.
Dystonic reaction and critical assessment of race-normative
messages leading to the crystallization of inchoate transgressive
or transcendent racial identity orientation or the catalysis of a
transgressive or transcendent racial identity orientation.
Adoption*
of race normative messages
(expectations, prescriptions,
etc.) about identity without
alteration.
Adaptation
of race normative messages
(e.g. “multiracial” or “mixed”).
Transgressive of racial
worldview, but not
transcendent.
Abnegation
of messages about race and
racial identity. Embrace of a
non-racial/transcendent
identity
Ramifications of fully
adopting a racial
worldview/identity.
Ramifications of an
adapted/transgressive racial
worldview/identity.
Ramifications of
renouncing a racial
worldview/identity.
Syntonic reaction to race
normativity likely leads to
some form of the conventional
subscriptive racial identity
development process.
*Participant narratives illustrate that movement from initial syntonic adoption of adaptation of race
normativity is possible (e.g. T10’s journey). Movement from abnegation and a non-racial identity
towards an embrace of race was not evidenced.

31. Significance
The construct of race is increasingly failing to
contain the authentic self-perceptions of those
cast in its binary and/or limiting parameters.

32. Five Epigenetic Eras of Race
I. PreRacialization
The entire history of humankind before the enshrinement of essentialized
inherited, immutable subgroup differences
II. The Terrible Transaction
Roughly 1619 (first Africans arrive in Jamestown) through the Naturalization Act
of 1790 and “race science period” (Linnaeus, Jefferson ….)
III. Redemptive Transposition
Maintaining the notion of racial difference while trying to ameliorate racial
inequality. 14th Amendment (1868) through the Civil Rights Era
VI. Increasing Transgression
“Mixed race” appears as a choice on the 2000 US Census
V. (Inevitable?) Transcendence

33. Published spring 2013
“In 21st-centuary America,
my family would be
described as multiracial.
But in the world I grew up
in – the American South of
the 1950s and 1960s,
where the idea of race and
identity determined who
you were and your place in
the world -- you were
either black or white.”

35. “She had never articulated
her non-identification in
concrete terms. That is, until
she began brainstorming for
her Expos paper. After
floating around ideas and
fiddling with labels and
words, Maouyo suddenly
conceived of a term she felt
most accurately captured her
own identity: araciality.”

36. Race
Transacted (speciously)
Transposed (redemptively)
Transgressed (increasingly)
Transcended (inevitably?)
Should we be surprised?
We should - are obliged to be -
prepared.

37. In light of this reality, are we living up to our principles?
The complexities associated with cultural diversity in the United States
affect all aspects of professional social work practice, requiring social
workers to strive to deliver culturally competent services to an ever-
increasing broad range of clients (NASW, 2007, p. 7)
…cultural competence in social work practice implies a heightened
consciousness of how clients experience their uniqueness and deal with
their differences and similarities within a larger social context. (NASW,
2007, p.9)
Social workers should obtain education about and seek to understand
the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race,
ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital
status, political belief, religion, and mental or physical disability. (NASW,
2007, p.14)

38. 1.Theory
2.Pedagogy
------------------
3. Practice
4. Policy

39. Correct the False Fundamental Assumption of RID Theory
It is assumed that in a society where racial group membership
is emphasized, the development of racial identity will occur in
some form in everyone. -Tatum, 1992, p.9
It is assumed that in a society where_______ is emphasized,
the development of _______ identity will occur in some form in
everyone.
 Religion-religious?
 Heteronormativity-heteronormative?
As social workers, we take pains to and are proud to NOT
impose such assumptions on those we serve or interact with.

40. Implications for Pedagogy
1. As is the case with heteronormativity, the implied hegemony of race
normativity should be countered by a clear statement on race similar to the
American Anthropological Association’s Statement in Race (1998).
2. Courses that involve identity (Race, Class, and Gender courses, Human
Behavior in the Social Environment, and the like), and that customarily rely
on RID theory as the primary means of conceptualizing race as a factor in
identity should make clear that dystonic attitudes towards the racial
worldview which manifest in transgressive or transcendent dispositions are
possible, extant, and perfectly acceptable identity outcomes.
3. Standard texts used in the teaching of content involving identity (by familiar
authors such as Tatum, Pinderhughes, Rothenberg, and Helms) should be
joined by texts that expand the discourse on identity beyond race
normativity.
1. What else?

41. Thank you!
Discussion
www.racetranscenders.com
The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.
-Gibson, 2003