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According to Greenwald (1988), identity development is a process by which an individual forms a relationship with a reference group, thus establishing the role of the reference group in influencing attitudes and behaviors through the adoption of group values and goals. Race provides one of several possible categories of social identity available to individuals, but not all individuals of the presumed same racial group place the same importance on the identity category (Cross, Strauss, and Fhaghen-Smith, 1999) or experience similar levels of identification (Thompson Sanders, 2001). Nevertheless, the historical realities of African American existence and individual efforts to cope with and adjust to racism make racial group identity a particularly salient identity for many. For the purposes of this paper, African American refers to individuals born in the United States who are descendants of African slaves or have African ancestry in the United States prior to emancipation.