Chapter 8, Race and Wider Identity Summary and Analysis

Racial liberation or national liberation usually arises from achieving a sense of identity or a 'revolution or awareness.' Erikson will thus restate some elements of the problem of identity and tie them to the relatively new awareness of the position of blacks in the United States in 1968 when this book was written. First, Erikson focuses on the psychology of the oppressed black in the writings of W.E.B. DuBois. He discusses the 'inaudible', 'faceless,' and 'nameless' black person. Preoccupation with identity is a symptom of alienation and a corrective trend in historical evolution. Such preoccupation is important because it is central to realizing man's specieshood, realizing the dream of universal brotherhood. Identity is naturally territorial and is hard to resist.

Erikson thinks that the focus of many black writers on...