2026-06-25 at 1030AM ET KEYNOTE  • Colleague or Colonizer?

Colleague or Colonizer? The Call is Coming From Inside The House

Dr. Camille Williams • 1 Learning (General) CE

Black queer individuals often navigate layered systems of reinforcement and punishment shaped by white supremacy, internalized anti-Blackness, and heteronormativity (Parmenter et al., 2021). This presentation examines how internalized anti-Blackness and homophobia function as learned behavioral repertoires maintained by social contingencies across cultural, religious, and institutional contexts. This presentation explores how repeated exposure to racialized and heterosexist punishment can shape self-directed avoidance, rule-governed behavior, and identity suppression. Particular attention is given to how Black queer individuals experience conflicting contingencies within Black communities and LGBTQ+ spaces, resulting in chronic response conflict, emotional labor, and reduced access to reinforcement across a variety of environments. These patterns often manifest as increased anxiety, diminshed self-advocacy, relational strain, and disengagement from care (Dawes et al., 2022). By analyzing these hardships through principles of learning history, stimulus control, and motivating operations, this presentation highlights how white supremacist norms are reproducted not only structurally but intrapersonally.

1. Identify how internalized anti-Blackness and internalized homophobia are acquired and maintained through social contingencies rooted in white supremacist norms.
2. Describe the ways conflicting reinforcement and punishment contingencies across cultural, familial, religious, and LGBTQ+ contexts shape the behavioral repertoires of Black queer individuals.
3. Analyze how learning history, stimulus control, and rule-governed behavior contribute to identity suppression, avoidance, and response conflict in Black queer populations.
4. Differentiate between structural oppression and intrapersonal internalization, and explain how both operate behaviorally to restrict access to reinforcement and psychological safety.
5. Apply behavior analytic principles to identify clinical practices that may inadvertently reinforce oppressive contingencies and to propose affirming, culturally responsive alternatives.