Black on black encounters: Exploring some psychological and political processes among black professionals and students in black-only support groups

Abstract

This article examines the issues for black professionals in welfare organisations and black students in higher education as we interact with each other as black people. It offers a blend of empirical description and theorising of the group dynamics that occur as black professionals and black students interrelate in black-only groups. It shows how diverse and complex the issues are and it invites us to re-think the notion of 'black identity'. The politics of identity is the politics of how individuals and members of minorities perceive themselves (as opposed to the hegemony that society might impose upon them). The struggle for hegemony is not only played out on a national or international stage but also between groups and individuals within groups.