In the sense that I am using the term, contingencies are conditions you have to deal with in a setting in order to function in it. And identity contingencies are contingencies that are special to you because you have a given social identity, things like the availability of a bank loan to Broyard only when he was white, or the lowered expectations for mental alertness one might experience as an older person, or the social avoidance a southerner might experience as his accent is heard at a New England cocktail party. These are identity contingencies.
