Nigrescence is a French term meaning “to become Black.” This word has become recognized as one of the most popular academic theories concerning identity. Its progenitor William Cross conceived the concept in 1971 to describe an identity process experienced by Black people who undergo a metamorphosis from identification with whiteness to identification with blackness and beyond. The underlying presumption of the multistage paradigm is that people with healthy identities are comfortable in their own skins. Black people ...