William E. Cross, Jr., PhD, will discuss his Nigrescence Model, an attitudinal theory representing predominant themes in individual African American attitudes, including perspectives placing low salience on race, an encounter experience or series of experiences, and internalized attitudes where the salience of race in American culture is recognized. The nine nigrescence attitudes include preencounter (assimilation, miseducation, and self-hatred), immersion-emersion (anti-White and intense Black involvement), and internalization (biculturalist, Afrocentric, multiculturalist racial, and multiculturalist inclusive). Dr. Cross will also disciuss the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS), an instrument to measure the Nigrescence Model.

<a href="http://chcr.umich.edu/who_we_are/people/person.2005-04-22.0379333844/person_view"><b>Bill Cross</b></a> received his doctorate in psychology from Princeton
University. He is currently a Professor and Chair of the doctoral
program in Social-Personality Psychology at City University of New York
(CUNY). Dr. Cross is considered one of the leading experts on the study
of African American Racial Identity Development. His text, Shades of
Black: Diversity in African American Identity (Temple University
Press), is considered a classic. His model on African American identity
development has been the focus of many essays and numerous empirical
studies, and the distinction he makes between personality and group
identity, in the dynamics of African American identity, is the focus of
scholarly debate within the fields of psychology and African American
Studies. His recent depiction of the everyday functions of Black
Identity has caught the attention of many practitioners, theorists and
researchers.<a href="http://chcr.umich.edu/who_we_are/people/person.2005-04-22.0379333844/person_view"></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"></span><br>