Panes for Authentic Black Manhood
Understanding Black Male Authenticity In our last podcast, I talked about the three key things Black men need to be true to themselves.
Introducing the Johari Window Today, I'll introduce you to the Johari Window, a tool for better understanding ourselves and how others see us. It was created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 at the University of California. It's really popular in group settings for helping people understand themselves better.
Building Trust and Learning Through Feedback The Johari Window helps us see how we come across to others. It's based on two ideas: 1) when we share things about ourselves, we build trust, and 2) we learn about ourselves from what others tell us. The Johari Window has four parts, each showing different types of personal information, feelings, and motivations. It tells us if this information is known or unknown to us or to others.
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Johari Window and Black Manhood Last time, we talked about what it means to be a genuine Black man. The Johari Window can help with this by making us more aware of how we interact with others. It shows us how we give and get feedback. DuBois talked about the "dual mentality" in Black men, and the Johari Window can help us understand these different parts of ourselves.
Navigating Self-Disclosure and Feedback Black men have to be careful about what we share and how we react to what people say about us. We need to figure out if their feedback is helpful or not. We also need to be aware of what we keep to ourselves. And we should explore things about ourselves that we or others don't know yet.
Empowering Identity through Self-Understanding Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote a poem, "We Wear the Mask," about how Black people often hide their true feelings.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries | To thee from tortured souls arise. | We sing, but oh the clay is vile | Beneath our feet, and long the mile; | But let the world dream otherwise, | We wear the mask!
The Johari Window can help us stop hiding and be more honest with ourselves and others. It can help us understand our true selves better.