Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T02:04:37.828Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Synthesizing Critical Consciousness and Identity-Based Motivation to Clarify How Youth of Color Navigate and Challenge Racial Capitalism

from Part I - Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2023

By
Andres Pinedo ,
Gabrielle Kubi  and
Matthew A. Diemer
Edited by
Luke J. Rapa  and
Erin B. Godfrey
Luke J. Rapa
Affiliation:
Clemson University, South Carolina
Erin B. Godfrey
Affiliation:
New York University
Get access

Summary

This chapter applies critical consciousness and identity-based motivation theories to understand youth of color’s psychological experiences in the face of oppression and the processes by which they can negotiate and challenge their conditions. Critical consciousness and identity-based motivation theories explicate how inequality shapes psychological processes and how these processes can either perpetuate or serve to challenge inequality. We also draw on the framework of racial capitalism – which posits that contemporary global capitalism emerged out of racial hierarchy – to contextualize the barriers youth of color traverse in their pursuit of social mobility. A racial capitalism analysis highlights the injustices youth of color contend with. We first provide overviews of the context of racial capitalism, identity-based motivation, and critical consciousness independently, and then we highlight the overlap between identity-based motivation and critical consciousness within the context of US racial capitalism. This synthesis helps to clarify how youth experience and navigate injustice by leveraging insights from both identity-based motivation and critical consciousness to illuminate the mechanisms that either thwart or promote their healthy development.

Keywords

critical consciousnessidentity-based motivationracial capitalisminequalitypsychological processes
Type
Chapter
Information
Critical Consciousness
Expanding Theory and Measurement
 , pp. 19 - 40
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelman, R. M., & Gocker, J. C. (2007). Racial residential segregation in urban America. Sociology Compass, 1, 404–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. (1978). Northern foundations and the shaping of Southern black rural education, 1902–1935. History of Education Quarterly, 18, 371–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/367710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anyiwo, N., Bañales, J., Rowley, S. J., Watkins, D. C., & Richards‐Schuster, K. (2018). Sociocultural influences on the sociopolitical development of African American youth. Child Development Perspectives, 12, 165–170.Google Scholar
Bañales, J., Aldana, A., Richards‐Schuster, K. et al. (2021). Youth anti‐racism action: Contributions of youth perceptions of school racial messages and critical consciousness. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(8), 3079–3100. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bañales, J., Mathews, C., Hayat, N., Anyiwo, N., & Diemer, M. A. (2020). Latinx and Black young adults’ pathways to civic/political engagement. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(2), 176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baptist, E. E. (2016). The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism. Hachette UK.Google Scholar
Bell, D. (1987). And we are not saved. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Benson, J. , & Dumas, M. J. (2021). Building out the edges: Reading racial capitalism into jean anyon’s political economy of urban education. Teachers College Record. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681211063966.Google Scholar
Bonilla, S., Dee, T. S., & Penner, E. K. (2021). Ethnic studies increases longer-run academic engagement and attainment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(37), e2026386118.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2001). White supremacy and racism in the post-civil rights era. Lynne Rienner Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, M. B., & Kramer, R. M. (1985). The psychology of intergroup attitudes and behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 36(1), 219–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, A. S., Destin, M., Carswell, K. L., & Svoboda, R. C. (2017). Perceptions of socioeconomic mobility influence academic persistence among low socioeconomic status students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72(9), 45–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, A. S., Destin, M., Kearney, M. S., & Levine, P. B. (2019). How economic inequality shapes mobility expectations and behaviour in disadvantaged youth. Nature Human Behavior, 3(3), 214–220.Google Scholar
Burson, E., & Godfrey, E. B. (2020). Intraminority solidarity: The role of critical consciousness. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(6), 1362–1377.Google Scholar
Cabrera, N. L., Milem, J. F., Jaquette, O., & Marx, R. W. (2014). Missing the (student achievement) forest for all the (political) trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies controversy in Tucson. American Educational Research Journal, 51(6), 1084–1118. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214553705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, S., & Heckman, J. (2001). The dynamics of educational attainment for Black, Hispanic, and White males. Journal of Political Economy, 109, 455–499. https://doi.org/10.1086/321014.Google Scholar
Cammarota, J. (2007). A social justice approach to achievement: Guiding Latina/o students toward educational attainment with a challenging, socially relevant curriculum. Equity and Excellence in Education, 40, 87–96.Google Scholar
Carter, D. (2008). Achievement as resistance: The development of a critical race achievement ideology among Black achievers. Harvard Educational Review, 78(3), 466–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter Andrews, D. J., Brown, T., Castro, E., & Id-Deen, E. (2019). The impossibility of being “perfect and White”: Black girls’ racialized and gendered schooling experiences. American Educational Research Journal, 56(6), 2531–2572. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219849392.Google Scholar
Clonan-Roy, K., Jacobs, C. E., & Nakkula, M. J. (2016). Towards a model of positive youth development specific to girls of color: Perspectives on development, resilience, and empowerment. Gender Issues, 33, 96–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-016-9156-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Covarrubias, R., & Fryberg, S. (2015). The impact of self-relevant representations on school belonging for underrepresented Native American students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21, 10–18.Google Scholar
Dee, T. S., & Penner, E. K. (2017). The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 127–166.Google Scholar
Derisma, M. (2013). Opposing views: The divide in public education funding – Property tax revenue. Children’s Legal Rights Journal, 34(1), 122–124.Google Scholar
Destin, M. (2019). A path to advance research on identity and socioeconomic opportunity. American Psychologist, 74, 1071–1079.Google Scholar
Destin, M. (2020). Identity research that engages contextual forces to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(2), 161–166.Google Scholar
Destin, M., & Oyserman, D. (2009). From assets to school outcomes: How finances shape children’s perceived possibilities and intentions. Psychological Science, 20(4), 414–418.Google Scholar
Destin, M., & Oyserman, D. (2010). Incentivizing education: Seeing schoolwork as an investment, not a chore. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 846–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A. (2009). Pathways to occupational attainment among poor youth of color: The role of sociopolitical development. The Counseling Psychologist, 37(1), 6–35.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Frisby, M. B., Pinedo, A. et al. (2022). Development of the Short Critical Consciousness Scale (ShoCCS). Applied Developmental Science, 26(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2020.1834394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Pinedo, A., Bañales, J., et al. (2021). Recentering action in critical consciousness. Child Development Perspectives, 15(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12393.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Rapa, L., Voight, A., & McWhirter, E. H. (2016). Critical consciousness: A developmental approach to addressing marginalization and oppression. Child Development Perspectives, 10(4), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12193.Google Scholar
Diemer, M. A., Wang, Q., Moore, T., et al. (2010). Sociopolitical development, work salience, and vocational expectations among low-SES African American, Latin American, and Asian American youth. Developmental Psychology, 46(3), 619–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1935). Black reconstruction in America 1860–1880. Harcourt, Brace, and Company.Google Scholar
Dumas, M. J. (2016). Against the dark: Antiblackness in education policy and discourse. Theory Into Practice, 55, 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852.Google Scholar
Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous peoples’ history of the United States. Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Elmore, K. C., & Oyserman, D. (2012). If “we” can succeed, “I” can too: Identity-based motivation and gender in the classroom. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37(3), 176–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2011.05.003.Google Scholar
Elmore, K., Oyserman, D., & Novin, S. (2016). When the going gets tough: Implications of reactance for interpretations of experienced difficulty in the classroom. AERA Open, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858416664714.Google Scholar
Feagin, J. R. (2013).The white racial frame: Centuries of racial framing and counter-framing. Routledge.Google Scholar
Fisher, O., & Oyserman, D. (2017). Assessing interpretations of experienced ease and difficulty as motivational constructs. Motivation Science, 3(2), 133–163. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000055.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.Google Scholar
Garcia, M. T., & Castro, S. (2011). Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano struggle for educational justice. University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Gerrard, J., Sriprakash, A., & Rudolph, S. (2021). Education and racial capitalism. Race Ethnicity and Education, 25(3), 425–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2021.2001449.Google Scholar
Gilmore, R. W. (2007). Golden gulag: Prisons, surplus, crisis, and opposition in globalizing California. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ginwright, S. A. (2010). Peace out to revolution! Activism among African American youth: An argument for radical healing. Young, 18(1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/110330880901800106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginwright, S., & Cammarota, J. (2007). Youth activism in the urban community: Learning critical civic praxis within community organizations. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20, 693–710. https://doi/org/10.1080/09518390701630833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaude, Jr., E. S. (2020). Begin again: James Baldwin’s America and its urgent lessons for our own (1st ed). Crown.Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. B., Burson, E. L., Yanisch, T. M., Hughes, D., & Way, N. (2019). A bitter pill to swallow? Patterns of critical consciousness and socioemotional and academic well-being in early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 55(3), 525–537. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000558.Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. B., & Wolf, S. (2016). Developing critical consciousness or justifying the system? A qualitative analysis of attributions for poverty and wealth among low-income racial/ethnic minority and immigrant women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 22, 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, J. W. (1991). An essay on organizational citizenship behavior. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 4(4), 249–270.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, L. M. (1995). Understanding the empowerment process: Does consciousness make a difference? Social Work Research, 19(4), 229–237. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/19.4.229.Google Scholar
Hall, S. (2021). Why Fanon? [1996]. In Selected writings on race and difference (pp. 339–358). Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Heberle, A. E., Rapa, L. J., & Faragó, F. (2020). Critical consciousness in children and adolescents: A systematic review, critical assessment, and recommendations for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 146(6), 525–551.Google Scholar
Hope, E. C., & Jagers, R. J. (2014). The role of sociopolitical attitudes and civic education in the civic engagement of Black youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(3), 460–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12117.Google Scholar
Hudley, C., & Graham, S. (2001). Stereotypes of achievement striving among early adolescents. Social Psychology of Education, 5, 201–224.Google Scholar
Jenkins, D., & Leroy, J. (2021). Introduction: The old history of capitalism. In Jenkins, D. & Leroy, J. (Eds.), Histories of Racial Capitalism (pp. 1–26). Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Joseph, J. (1995). Black youths, delinquency, and juvenile justice. Greenwood Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Karuka, M. (2021). The counterrevolution of property along the 32nd parallel. In Jenkins, D. & Leroy, J. (Eds.), Histories of racial capitalism (pp. 135–168). Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, H. H. (1973). The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28(2), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Keltner, D. (2009). Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 992–1004. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016357.Google Scholar
LewisJr., N. A. (2021). Can we achieve “equality” when we have different understandings of its meaning? How contexts and identities shape the pursuit of egalitarian goals. Psychological Inquiry, 32(3), 155–164.Google Scholar
Lewis, N. A., Jr., & Sekaquaptewa, D. (2016). Beyond test performance: A broader view of stereotype threat. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11, 40–43.Google Scholar
Luginbuhl, P. J., McWhirter, E. H., & McWhirter, B. T. (2016). Sociopolitical development, autonomous motivation, and education outcomes among low income Latina/o adolescents. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 4, 53–59.Google Scholar
Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41(9), 954.Google Scholar
Monjaras-Gaytan, L. Y., Sánchez, B., Anderson, A. J., et al. (2021). Act, talk, reflect, then act: The role of natural mentors in the critical consciousness of ethnically/racially diverse college students. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68(3–4), 292–309. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12517.Google Scholar
O’Connor, C. (1997). Dispositions toward (collective) struggle and educational resilience in the inner city: A case analysis of six African-American high school students. American Educational Research Journal, 34(4), 593–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orfield, G., & Lee, C. (2005). New faces, old patterns? Segregation in the multiracial south. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D. (2009). Identity-based motivation: Implications for action-readiness, procedural-readiness, and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 250–260.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D. (2013). Not just any path: Implications of identity-based motivation for disparities in school outcomes. Economics of Education Review, 33, 179–190.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D., Bybee, D., Terry, K., & Hart-Johnson, T. (2004). Possible selves as roadmaps. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 130–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oyserman, D., & Destin, M. (2010). Identity-based motivation: Implications for intervention. The Counseling Psychologist, 38, 1001–1043.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D., & Fryberg, S. A. (2006). The possible selves of diverse adolescents: Content and function across gender, race, and national origin. In Dunkel, C. & Kerpelman, J. (Eds.), Possible Selves: Theory, Research, and Application (pp. 17–39). Nova.Google Scholar
Oyserman, D., Gant, L., & Ager, J. (1995). A socially contextualized model of African American identity: Possible selves and school persistence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1216. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.6.1216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oyserman, D., & Lewis, N. A., Jr. (2017). Seeing the destination AND the path: Using identity-based motivation to understand and reduce racial disparities in academic achievement. Social Issues and Policy Review, 11(1), 159–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinedo, A., Vossoughi, N., & Lewis, N. A. (2021). Critical pedagogy and children’s beneficial development. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8(2), 183–191.Google Scholar
Rapa, L. J., Diemer, M. A., & Bañales, J. (2018). Critical action as a pathway to social mobility among marginalized youth. Developmental Psychology, 54, 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000414.Google Scholar
Ray, V. E. (2019). A theory of racialized organizations. American Sociological Review, 84, 26–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, C. J. (1983). Black Marxism the making of the Black radical tradition, 2000 ed. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Rogers, L. O., & Way, N. (2016). “I have goals to prove all those people wrong and not fit into any one of those boxes”: Paths of resistance to stereotypes among Black adolescent males. Journal of Adolescent Research, 31, 263–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558415600071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, L. O., & Way, N. (2021). Child development in an ideological context: Through the lens of resistance and accommodation. Child Development Perspectives, 15, 242–248. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. (2011). The person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology. Pinter & Martin Publishers.Google Scholar
Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.Google Scholar
Salter, P. S., Adams, G., & Perez, M. J. (2018). Racism in the structure of everyday worlds: A cultural-psychological perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417724239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santiago-Rivera, A. L., Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., & Benson-Flórez, G. (2016). The impact of racism on communities of color: Historical contexts and contemporary issues. In Alvarez, A. N., Liang, C. T. H., & Neville, H. A. (Eds.), Cultural, racial, and ethnic psychology book series. The cost of racism for people of color: Contextualizing experiences of discrimination (p. 229–245). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14852-011.Google Scholar
Seider, S., Clark, S., & Graves, D. (2020). The development of critical consciousness and its relation to academic achievement in adolescents of color. Child Development, 91(2), e451–e474. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seider, S., & Graves, D. (2020). Schooling for critical consciousness: Teaching black and Latinx youth to analyze, navigate, and challenge racial injustice. Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Sleeter, C. E., & Zavala, M. (2020). Transformative ethnic studies in schools: Curriculum pedagogy & research. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Smith, K. B., & Stone, L. H. (1989). Rags, riches, and bootstraps: Beliefs about the causes of wealth and poverty. Sociological Quarterly, 30(1), 93–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suárez-Orozco, C. (2004). Formulating identity in a globalized world. In Suárez-Orozco, M. M. & Qin-Hilliard, D. B. (Eds.), Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium (pp. 173–202). University of California Press.Google Scholar
Treskon. (2017, March 28). Less segregated communities aren’t only more inclusive. They’re more prosperous. Urban Institute. www.urban.org/urban-wire/less-segregated-communities-arent-only-more-inclusive-theyre-more-prosperous.Google Scholar
Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A Letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–428.Google Scholar
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2014). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization, Indigeneity, Education, and Society, 1, 1–40.Google Scholar
Turner, C. (2016, April 18). Why America’s schools have a money problem. Morning Edition. www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem.Google Scholar
Uriostegui, M., Roy, A. L., & Li-Grining, C. P. (2021). What drives you? Black and Latinx youth’s critical consciousness, motivations, and academic and career activities. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50, 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01343-6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, M.-T., Henry, D. A., Smith, L. V., Huguley, J. P., & Guo, J. (2020). Parental ethnic-racial socialization practices and children of color’s psychosocial and behavioral adjustment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Psychologist, 75(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000464.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., Diemer, M. A., & Voight, A. M. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. In Christens, B. & Flanagan, C. (Eds.), Youth Civic Development: Work at the Cutting Edge (Vol. 134, pp. 43–57). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., & Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A developmental and liberation psychology perspective. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 779–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, R. J., & Hipolito-Delgado, C. (2015). Thinking ourselves to liberation: Advancing sociopolitical action in critical consciousness. The Urban Review, 47, 847–867. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0341.Google Scholar
Watts, R. J., Williams, N. C., & Jagers, R. J. (2003). Sociopolitical development. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31, 185–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1023091024140.Google Scholar
Weiner, B. (1972). Attribution theory, achievement motivation, and the educational process. Review of Educational Research, 42(2), 203–215. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170017.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×