Date of Award
8-2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Urban Studies
Department
Planning and Urban Studies
Major Professor
Jeffrey Ehrenreich
Second Advisor
David Gladstone
Third Advisor
Michelle Thompson
Abstract
“Race” and racial identity are concepts that have rarely been explored as psychological or emotional phenomena. The concept of “race” itself is often taken for granted as a “natural” human category; there has been little attention to the emotional consequences of coming into awareness about one’s racial identity, especially in the case of white racial identity. This qualitative study explores the racial identity formation process by examining life history narratives of ten social justice activists with self-described “strong spiritual practices” in the Northeast region of the United States. Six important themes emerged from this project: (1) racial identity formation is marked by shame, trauma, grief, and, for some, spiritual growth and expansion, (2) white racial identity formation is deeply marked by the experience of shame, not to be confused with guilt, (3) shame and trauma share many physiological, emotional, and psychological features, (4) spirituality has been used to personal transmute, transform, and transcend the cultural pain and suffering of racial trauma and shame, (5) social justice and anti-oppression activism appears to be an expression of what the literature has termed “post-traumatic growth,” and (6) spirituality informs how the study participants reconciled racial subjectivity and activism. The study concludes that addressing racism cannot be a purely intellectual exercise. “Race” and racism are embodied phenomena fraught with human emotion and the essence of identity or personhood. As such, there is a need for much research that seeks to understand the role of human emotion in racial identity formation and in healing racism.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Natasha S., "The Spirit of Justice: The Emotional Experience of Racial Identity Formation Among Social Justice Activists" (2023). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3106.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3106
Included in
Other American Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Work Commons, Transpersonal Psychology Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.