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Cross, William E., Jr. (1940-)

William E. Cross, Jr., is an African American social psychologist who is best known for his Nigrescence model of Black racial identity. The power of Cross's original Nigrescence model, which was first articulated in 1971, is evident by its adoption in the theorizing about other cultural identities, including minority, racial, ethnic, feminist, womanist, and gay/lesbian identities. The later versions of the model (i.e., the revised and expanded models in 1991 and 2001, respectively) have not only advanced the theorizing about Black racial identity, but the 2001 revision also resulted in a psychometrically supported measurement model, the Cross Racial Identity Scale. Cross is one of the most frequently cited names in the Black racial identity literature.

Background

Cross's interest in the identity of African Americans came, in part, out of the segregated social context of the times in which he grew up. He was the fourth child and first son of William and Margaret Cross; his father was a Pullman porter, a job that was steady and resulted in economic security, and his mother worked at different times as a maid and a factory worker. Although both of his parents had about 2 years of college—advanced education for their time—the social context did not allow them to translate their education into related employment. Thus, although Cross's parents valued education, they did not see it as a guaranteed avenue leading to advancement.

Cross's parents encouraged their children to read broadly and to value learning, but they also communicated messages to their children that are now well documented in the research literature. Cross's father encouraged him to go to college but also pressured him to pursue a skilled trade that would enable him to support himself as an adult. He did not want his son to be educated but unemployable. Cross chose not to pursue a skilled trade, initially a source of tension between him and his father, and was the only one of his siblings (Dolores, Shirley, Charlene, Charles, and Judith) to attend college. Cross's mother communicated a different message. She insisted that Cross could do anything he wanted to do, but she also pointed out that to be successful, he needed to be much better at it than others, if he expected to succeed and be taken seriously. She also indicated that even if he were better than others, he might not be rewarded at the level that he should. Thus, there was this unstated notion of a racialized world, present in the household but never made explicit. However, until he was about 10 years old, Cross's mother actively protected him and his siblings from some of the negative events that were happening in society as they were growing up. Cross describes the notion of becoming aware of race at about age 10 as a sledgehammer that initially took all of the fun out of life.

Origins of Cross's Nigrescence Model

Although there were many things that contributed to the development of the original Nigrescence model, three of these stand out: pursuing clinical psychology for his master's degree, the Black Power movement in the mid- to late 1960s, and the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. After completing his bachelor's degree in psychology, Cross enrolled in a master's program in clinical psychology in 1963. In this program, with its emphasis on process, Cross developed a keen interest in identity change and became fascinated with experiencing changes in the self without conscious awareness of the process.

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