Race and Recognition: Pathways to an affirmative black identity

Scholars have long theorized about the ways in which Black people throughout the Diaspora develop affirmative identities, even in the face of racial oppression. The lack of recognition of humanity is reflected in the structural oppression of Black people in the US and around the globe as illustrated by the health, wealth, education, and criminal justice disparities between Blacks and their White counterparts, even in countries in which Black people are the numeric majority. Research on the invisibility of Black men and women is closely aligned with Ford’s notion of misrecognition. Being invisible is a form of lack of recognition and refers to the depersonalization of Blacks through racial stereotypes and thus not being seen as three-dimensional persons. Conceptually, developing a positive Black racial identity is related to issues of recognition; however, there is a dearth of empirical research exploring this association.