Running Head: PERSONAL CULTURAL ANALYSIS AND IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT 1

Personal Cultural Analysis & Identity Development

Steve Rockey
Wake Forest University

























PERSONAL CULTURAL ANALYSIS AND IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT 2
Abstract
In this analysis, I take an in depth look at my personal-cultural development and examine what
factors have molded it, when it has changed, and where I am now. I explore my social,
professional, and religious interactions with others different than myself, examine my first
encounter with discrimination and what I learned, speak to family influences about those of other
races, orientations, and so on, as well as connect my current identity development to what it
means to be an effective counselor. Throughout, I connect these various points with my current
and/or past personal-cultural identity development and conclude with an overall take away.
















PERSONAL CULTURAL ANALYSIS AND IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT 3
Personal Cultural Analysis & Identity Development
Interaction with Others
To start, Id just like to remark that I love studying culture. Theres definitely nothing
like diving into how others make sense of the world. The tasks of understanding what matters to
others, whats important to how they function, particular values, etc. are all elements of being an
inquisitive human thats seeking to make sense of him as well as of those around him. Its all
part of an overall curiosity: to listen to, to think in terms of, and to understand, even just a little
bit, others perspectives and points of view.
In this vein and way of thinking, I think that I pretty regularly interact with members of
other diverse groups different from my own. This interaction firstly happens in a professional
sense. Within this cohort, Im surrounded by an incredibly diverse group of people. This
diversity is seen in background, upbringing, race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, and so on.
While this was probably done on purpose, Im thankful for it being so. The opportunity to
dialogue with others and to hear differing perspectives than your own is invaluable, especially in
a profession that places people at the center of itself.
Im also glad that this dialogue extends from the classroom to other settings were
involved in, having to do with Wake or not. This has been important in getting to know these
people socially outside of the classroom and seeing how they go about in everyday life.
Summarily, to not have a broad range of different peoples within this system would be awkward
at best and criminal at worst.
Professionally, I also interact with others different from myself in a small group setting.
In being a small group leader for the career class taught at Wake, its been essential to learn from
and to see how others approach the oncoming world of work. While a lot of these people are like
me (are white, in college, etc.), there are a good amount of those that are different from me. Ive
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been noticing this more and more as time has gone on and as weve gone through this course. In
particular, I like to pay attention to how people perceive any hurdles or injustices found within
the workplace environment. Again, many Wake students that Ive encountered in this class
setting dont think in this way but to hear from those that have been prejudiced or oppressed has
been insightful.
Socially, I would say that I interact with those that are like myself as well as those that
arent like me on a pretty equal basis. Moving to a new setting and community has been tricky
and challenging, yet rewarding all in the same sense. Not having any pre-established friends or
roots here in our new home (note: whenever I refer to us or our, Im referring to me and my
wife, Hannah) has been difficult but, on the flip side, hasnt allowed us to just hang with who we
usually do.
With this, weve been forced to move out of habits of convenience (hanging out with
those that are just like us in a college setting for example) to, Hey, lets hang out with our
neighbor because shes all we know. and other similar sentiments. Speaking of this, this has
been beneficial because weve been pushed out of our comfort zone and have gotten to know our
really cool neighbor from Romania as well as others in our neighborhood, church, cohort, etc.
Religiously, I interact with a wide range of people different than myself. This difference
is seen in race, culture, and especially socioeconomic status. Interactions with others include
through worship, service in the community, service within the church, small group meetings, and
so forth.
With this, a big tenet of what I believe in is held in Galatians 3:28, There is neither Jew
nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Within my
beliefs, there is a major emphasis on people of all differences and lifestyles coming together,
something that contributes to my curiosity in culture.
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Understanding Racism and Discrimination
I can distinctly remember first understanding that our world wasnt equal and that not
everyone in life was treated the same. I can even vividly remember the feelings and emotions
that I was feeling, the confusion that followed, the guilt that put the cherry on top, and the
aftermath of the situation. To understand this period in my life, it is therefore necessary to fill in
some past history.
From a very young age, my mother raised my sister and I in a single parent environment.
We, for the first eight to ten years of our lives, would go over to my fathers house on the
weekends to spend time with him. We werent super close with him, but it was still good to get
to go over and see him from time to time. My dad, when he was there, wouldnt really do much
with us in terms of building a relationship. This is to put it lightly. All of this is to say that he
wasnt exactly a model father. Anywho, on to the story
One day at my dads, I remember him talking on the phone to a friend of his. I had to be
no more than nine or ten years old at the time. I remember him getting in a ruckus about
something going on with his job. My dad was a police officer, so I had always thought him to be
a model citizen and upholder of justice, at least maybe outside of the time spent with my sister
and me. I remember him standing tall, uniform on, badge shiny, like an absolute action hero. I
wanted to be a police officer, wanted to be like him, to stand up for those who had no voice. I
wanted to stand up for what was right, like he was supposed to be doing.
With this conversation, he started cursing loudly, right there in front of us. He then
started using the N-word profusely, as if someone of that particular race had done him wrong.
I then remember him getting off the phone and pacing back and forth through the room saying,
Were gonna go N-word hunting. Over and over again. I still dont know what he meant to
this day.
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I remember being in absolute shock over what was spewing from his mouth. What in the
hell was he talking about? What had someone else done to him? Why was he demonstrating so
much hatred, let alone doing so right in front of his children? Questions were running rampant
through my young mind. After a while, we stopped going to see my dad. I, personally, havent
seen him in many, many years.
Coming back home after going through this, I was absolutely confused. Was my dad, of
all people, a racist? I knew that what he was saying was awful and Id heard of racists (on TV,
learning in the classroom, etc.), but was my father actually one? Was someone that I was
supposed to love, someone that was supposed to be a model to me, my own father, someone that
hated others because of the color of their skin?
I brought it up to my mom and we all had a long talk about that word, what it means,
what we had heard, and so on. I still dont know his motives, but I still feel pain from it. I still
feel embarrassment from it, to know that someone so closely related to me, hell, someone with
my same name (I was named after him) could live a certain way. To know that someone Im
associated with, whether I like it or not, says things like that and is involved with hatred like that
makes me hurt.
What did I learn from this? I learned a lot and I still feel a lot. I still have a lot of
questions for him, many of which Im sure will never be answered. Ive learned how real racism
and hate can be. Ive seen it on TV. Ive learned about it in the classroom. Ive earned a degree
studying many major themes having to do with it.
But you never think it could be someone so closely related to you. You dont think that it
could hit so close to home. Someone that youre supposed to love and care for, and thats
supposed to love and care for you, spewing and uttering and so filled with hate that youre left
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dumbfounded, questioning, embarrassed, not just for him but for yourself, your namesake, your
family.
From this experience, Ive learned respect and love. Everyone deserves it, regardless of
skin color, culture, whatever. To not do so is to be subhuman. To not do so is absolutely wrong.
Out of everything Ive learned from that situation though, Ive learned that the world isnt equal.
There are those that are at the top, those that are privileged. There are those that are oppressed,
whether socially, economically, racially, ideologically, you name it. There is inequality and
hatred and Ive seen it firsthand through my father.
Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model
Moving toward placing myself on the continuum of a racial/cultural identity development
model, Id just say that Im always growing and changing. Just like Ive learned that these
models arent pure stages and tend to be more fluid in nature, I consider myself to always be
changing and potentially going back and forth between some of the various stages.
Nonetheless, if I had to place myself on a continuum, Id use the White Racial Identity
Ego Statuses as well as the WRID model developed by Sue (2006) and Helms (1995),
respectively. On these scales, Id usually place myself in the fourth or fifth category, depending
on where Im at in any given day. These categories, Immersion/Emersion and Autonomy, most
closely fit with what Ive personally gone through as well as some of the issues Ive been
thinking about and dealing with (i.e. self introspection, what it means to be White, increased
awareness, etc.).
Especially lately, Ive been asking myself more often what it means to be White. I know
and have looked over for a long while stuff like institutional racism, privilege, differing rights,
etc., but on a deeper level what does that mean to me? How does this make me who I am?
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Sometimes, if Im honest, I might be a few of these at a time. Sometimes Im fine with
the status quo, or oblivious to whats going on in a situation racially, or merely dont want to pay
attention to whats going on. If Im honest with myself, I could be in the beginning stages from
time to time. But on the whole, Id describe myself as more towards the end of the model.
More Family Influence
Even with being exposed to such hatred from my dad at a young age, Id say that others
including my mom, uncle, and grandma influenced me in a very positive manner. With this, I
shall go into a few specifics.
I can remember my mom teaching me from a very young age to treat everyone, and
especially those of different religions, races, orientations, etc., with utmost respect and gratitude.
Growing up, we were different than those around us. Me not having a dad was unusual in the
school I attended. We were also not that well off economically, which was very different than
those I attended school with.
My mom used these principles in our own lives to demand respect and love for others
different than myself. Learning these principles this way was essential because they were what I
wanted from others, so giving them to others became that much more vivid and understandable
to me.
My grandmother also played a big role in advising me how to treat others that werent
like myself. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandma. When I was a young boy, I
would spend countless hours over at her house, spending time and listening to her great stories. I
remember her specifically telling me about her upbringing.
She grew up in a family of nine children, poor, in the mountains of West Virginia far
from any of the conveniences we have today. She would always tell me that it didnt matter
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where people come from, what they look like, how they get along in life, that any of that didnt
dictate how I should treat others. This is where the conversation began and ended.
In addition to my father, I do remember my grandfather being particularly negative
towards people of color. He wasnt a big fan of things like interracial marriage and threw around
racial slurs all of the time. I didnt interact with him much but I remember his opinions and
ideas. I remember being told after the fact that he had just grown up in a different time when
saying stuff like that was acceptable and okay. I wasnt so sure about that but just accepted it for
what it was.
In these instances of my life as a young man, especially with my dads influence always
in the back of my mind, I can see a lot of self-discomfort with who I was and how to define
myself. I know that there are so many people who are different than me, but who am I? How do
I define myself? This bled from pseudo independence into some immersion/emersion, but I
essentially identified with others because I didnt know what I was.
You can have family, teachers, peers, and so on tell you to treat others like you, but what
is you? What am I? I knew what it meant to be Black, or Latino, or Asian, but what was
White? Just a state of being? This led to some frustration as I didnt really know what culture I
had but could pick out, maybe, how I was like my different friend at school or what
characteristics we had in common. In any sense of the term, I was for a while culturally
confused. Everyone else had culture, but where was mine?
I still struggle with my culture in some cases but these past memories have definitely
affected my racial/cultural identity development in the present. Ive really come to see the
complexity in the world and in where I come from. Ive gained more of an understanding of my
history, who I am, what it means to be White, what it means to have privilege, even today, and
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how I fit into the greater puzzle. What Ive learned from them Ive been able to contextualize, to
understand better, and to hopefully apply to how I live my life.
Current Racial/Cultural Identity and Being an Effective Counselor
The current track that ones racial/cultural identity development is on is of utmost
importance to being an effective counselor. It affects what lens you view the world through, how
you think the world works, how you relate to others. Where I personally am right now, I believe,
positively contributes to me being able to be an effective counselor.
Where I am presently firstly helps me to be curious and to ask questions. I know that,
particularly as a White person, I begin in a position of power and privilege whether I like this or
not. I usually dont have to go through life thinking about how my skin color or culture will
prevent me from obtaining a job, prevent me from getting a quality education, negatively
position me within society, whatever; rather, I have more of a viewpoint from the dominant
position. Just acknowledging this is such an important thing to do and is part of being in the
stage that Im currently in.
This is helpful, especially in a school setting, because school settings are infamous for
continued and prolonged institutional racism and oppression. Even today, schools are split
racially, culturally, and socioeconomically, whether purposefully or not. Understanding that a
system such as this can perpetuate oppression as well as understanding how I fit into this system
can only help me to become more of an effective counselor.
Also, the stages that Im in allow me to better understand the complexity of the world
that we live in when it comes to race and culture. Defining what it means to be White is difficult
enough, but understanding how everyone relates to each other and then to me can be even
tougher. Even so, this is essential in being an effective counselor, especially in a school setting.
Understanding my clients/students, their background, how they may relate to or perceive me, and
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how they relate to others is all a part of bettering the school system Im in and growing as an
effective counselor.
So What Does This All Mean?
Throughout this paper, Ive been able to examine how I interact with others, my family
background, my life so far as a beginning counselor, and combine all of this to trace my
development in terms of race and cultural identity. Im so thankful for an assignment like this
because Ive gained so much insight into myself, my culture, the world around me, and the
systems of that world as a whole. I still struggle from time to time understanding what it means
to be White, what my culture looks like, and with other similar questions, but dont we all
struggle with queries like this from time to time?
I think that, most importantly, I come away from this assignment more curious and
willing to ask questions than ever. How am I different? How is the world different for me, even
on a deeper level that Ive previously mentioned? I believe that a cultural journey and
understanding where one fits in to the puzzle that is our world is a lifelong one and I leave this
assignment ready to go, ready to inquire, ready to understand, and willing to listen.









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References
Helms, J. E. (1997). Toward a model of white racial identity development. College student
development and academic life: Psychological, intellectual, social and moral issues, 207-
224.
Sue, D. W. (2006). Multicultural social work practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Pryun, P. W. (2011). Identity development models [Web log message]. Retrieved from
http://developmentalobserver.blog.com/2011/12/01/identity-development-models/