Internalized Racism as a Self-Regulatory System: The Internalized Racism Process Model

Internalized racism, although widely studied, remains conceptually fragmented and theoretically underdeveloped. I advance the Internalized Racism Process Model (IRPM), a process framework that conceptualizes internalized racism as a recursive, motive-driven system of self-regulation through which structurally organized ethnoracial hierarchy becomes embedded in psychological functioning. The IRPM specifies how structural conditions, sociocultural socialization, and identity processes converge to organize internalized racism. The model identifies a functional–motivational architecture in which needs for self-integrity and belonging give rise to three regulatory functions—threat minimization, ideological acceptance, and identity translation—that structure diverse forms of internalized racism and their behavioral enactments. Through recursive feedback loops, these processes stabilize into enduring patterns of self-regulation. The IRPM integrates previously fragmented literatures by distinguishing forms from manifestations, linking motives to regulatory functions, and specifying cross-level dynamics between structural contexts and individual regulation. It explains variability in who internalizes (via vulnerability and resistance resources), when internalization is likely (under conditions of threat and belonging pressure), and why consequences differ (as a function of form and configuration). Finally, the model specifies how strategies that provide short-term regulatory relief can consolidate into entrenched patterns that undermine psychological functioning. Although designed to generalize across hierarchically organized systems, the IRPM centers on internalized racism among subordinated groups, where empirical foundations are most developed, while also providing a framework for examining internalized racial dominance among advantaged groups. The IRPM offers a unifying account that advances explanation, generates testable predictions, and establishes an agenda for future research on the psychological organization of inequality.