New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development

Book excerpt: New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development brings together leaders in the field to deepen, broaden, and reassess our understandings of racial identity development. Contributors include the authors of some of the earliest theories in the field, such as William Cross, Bailey W. Jackson, Jean Kim, Rita Hardiman, and Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe, who offer new analysis of the impact of emerging frameworks on how racial identity is viewed and understood. Other contributors present new paradigms and identify critical issues that must be considered as the field continues to evolve. This new and completely rewritten second edition uses emerging research from related disciplines that offer innovative approaches that have yet to be fully discussed in the literature on racial identity. Intersectionality receives significant attention in the volume, as it calls for models of social identity to take a more holistic and integrated approach in describing the lived experience of individuals. This volume offers new perspectives on how we understand and study racial identity in a culture where race and other identities are socially constructed and carry significant societal, political, and group meaning.