The Black Writer and His Role

Carolyn Gerald ascribes a role for Black writers that we as counseling psychologists feel is fitting for the Black counselor or educator. With great perceptiveness, she establishes a cause and effect relationship between image and self-concept. This article will convince readers that it is impossible to be Black in a world of white-controlled imagery without having a zero self-image. Black youth are bombarded with racial and cultural images that usually exalt whiteness and demean Blackness, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for them without wise guidance to exhibit behavior in accord with the beauty of Blackness. Black counselors, teachers, psychologists, and parents must help Black youth and each other to sort through or scrutinize more carefully the images projected on their sensory mechanisms and help effect the positive self-images essential for positive Black behavior.