Psychology

The issue of race continues to dominate many scholars as they define and seek to comprehend its many dimensions. It is in this light that throughout history, psychology and education professions have sought to derive various frameworks for racial identity. Racial identity has often addressed the development of black racial identity following the long history of discrimination and oppression of blacks. In their models, identity focused on the oppressed, that is, individuals who had less power, fewer economic resources and the endured physical and psychological torture. On the other hand, white racial identity seems to be the complete opposite as they focused on white people as oppressors. They are observed to be people with power, resources and having ample privileges. It is fundamental for whites to acknowledge their role in as oppressors in their search of an identity. More so, white people are considered as the most privileged and have to take up this part of their identity. This paper seeks to understand how white identity development intersects with white privilege. White privilege is at the very core of white identity development.

According to Carter et al (1998) white development models detail particular assumptions. First, racism is construed a part of the American life and thus affects all aspects of culture and institutions. In addition, white people are socialized into the society which accounts for their inheritance of stereotypes, biases, beliefs, behaviors and racist attitudes among others. Also, assumptions are made that white people relate to other races with regard to their white racial identity. Regardless of the nature of these assumptions, the aim of acquiring a white racial identity is to allow white people to accept their place as white people in a racist society. However, it is paramount that they do so in a nonracist manner. As indicated by the following discussion, it will be eminent that white people have often been identified as those in society who have as opposed to non whites who are underprivileged.

In Helms (Carter et al, 1998) white racial identity development model, white people are illustrated to develop an identity in the stages of abandonment of racism and defining a non racist identity. In this process, white people are initially oblivious to the existence of racism and have very limited experiences with blacks. In addition, the existing social stereotypes are not acknowledged consciously or otherwise making white people a part of a process they are inherently unaware of. It is later on when faced with racial conflicts that they become exclusively aware of their whiteness and seek to reconcile these conflicts. While doing so, they are forced to recount their role in the history of black oppression. Eminent in this stage of white identity development is the ever imposing element of white supremacy and power. The legacy left by the history of black oppression and racism is one which depicts white people as powerful and in a position to impose themselves of others. As they struggle to form an identity for themselves white people need to come to terms with the existing white supremacist system which created many injustices against blacks.

Ashbaugh et al (2002, p.239) asserts that white privilege is rather concretely engraved in the American society that even white people are unaware of their interrelations with power. As such when faced with the possibilities of identifying with this notion, they are bound to retreat of forced to understand this element. It is this white privilege which allows for different treatment of whites and this shapes their everyday experiences. Increased understanding of these circumstances heightens the rate at which white people develop a racial identity. Ideally, the normalization of privilege is what has accounted for white peoples understanding of who they are. In the American society, the characteristics of the white race are regarded as the American societys norm. Wildman (1996, p.14) expounds that this form of normalization defines how other people in the society are judged. The effect of normalcy is as a result of the invisible aspect which whiteness surrounds it with. The incapacity to reach the level of the white peoples characteristics is considered as fail while the reverse is acknowledged as success. As part of this privilege white people have access to resources not accessible to others like legacy admissions to particularly elite schools. While those without privilege live at a disadvantage with their opportunities quite limited. A search for white identity is basically a revelation of the concept of privilege as largely integrated in the constructs of racism. This insinuates that unless white people come to terms with their elements of privilege, they will not fathom an identity of their own.

In unraveling the domains of white privilege, white people find the process quite harrowing. It becomes difficult for them to comprehend that their behaviors even though unintentionally racist may seem oppressive and harmful to black people. However, uncovering these cultural tendencies brought about by white privilege is the beginning of a change process. The change process unlike, the initial stage is consciously instigated and white people work towards modifying their actions. The new behaviors are geared towards not reflecting ignorant racism and white supremacy. Indeed, it is crucial to regularly evaluate the concept of white privilege and its effect on white identity and white peoples relations with other races. In doing so, white people are able to devise ways of using the same notion of white privilege in destabilizing the extended white supremacist system. In fact, when white people accept their white privilege, this form of confession allows them redemption.

More often than not the society has a tendency to dichotomize white people into particular categorizations. However, the search for a white identity requires the refrain from such classifications and encourages a diverse and extensive openness on the subject. Although difficult it is necessary to do this. There is an element of white identify which has been engraved in white peoples minds and may affect their conceptualization of a white identity. McIntyre (1997, p.80) describes the perspective of white people as living a fairly tale. Whiteness is seen an identity which comes along with extraordinary freedoms. Such an outlook indicates that white people are at the highest level of the society and are free to do anything they may choose. A fairly tale sort of life illuminates the effects of privilege and allows white people to acknowledge that everything is available to them. In the same respect, these people will acknowledge the cruelty of this social stereotype towards black people and claim that these privileges are just not available to them. This idealized notion of a white identity is as a result of how different individuals are socialized. Such factors as residential areas, education, class backgrounds, and available opportunities interact in creating an idealized white identity.

In order to move away from this form of thinking about race and white identity and conceptualizing a more comprehensible white identity, it is critical for white people to take an institutional and cultural approach towards the subject. This involves understanding racism beyond the individual and distancing oneself from locating themselves within a larger group of white people. The extended view on racism includes understanding it as a system which maintains and upholds racial practices maligning black people or other races through discrimination and exclusion. When white people expand their conceptualization to this perspective they begin to identify the stratification which exists between white and black people. It is then that they understand that despite the fact that white privilege has set the norm for the American society, they still have issues to contend with on their white identity. As such a definition of whiteness arises from the white peoples questioning of their initial individual meanings and understandings of white identity.

White privilege though distinctly beneficial to white people has also been accompanied by certain disadvantages. The initial ethnic identity of white people in America was paramount in forming a primary identity. However, the interaction with other cultures and ethnicities necessitated the creation of a white identity by assimilation. Most immigrants into America were pressurized to alter their cultural identities to that which was regarded as American. These other people had their won cultural identities but the urge to assimilate into another identity affected them and white people as well. This was a distortion of the primary identity earlier acquired by white people. White people do have a void within themselves as they lack a real culture and their interactions with other races may be a reaction to their attempts at filling this void.

It is evident from the above discussion that there exists a profound relationship between white identity and white privilege. Indeed, white privilege is at the focal point of white identity to the extent that it defines how white people can formulate a white identity. It is the individual responsibility of individual white people to make decisions on their willingness to relate to their ethnicity and origins. Furthermore, their identity development will require them to understand such concepts as white supremacy power, white privilege and the normalization of this privilege. The ultimate level of developing a white identity involves heightening their awareness of their own color and the social implications of the same. This will result to reduced feelings of guilt as they endeavor to accept the oppressive role played by their race in the past. In their determined effort to abandon white privilege, they become autonomous, knowledgeable on such aspects as racism, ethnic and cultural diversities. This revelation then makes them comfortable in their white skin and they are able to cement their nonracist white identity.