Stage of white identity development (Helms) and their corresponding beliefs/thoughts/actions

Resources

*When purchasing books, please purchase directly from authors or local bookstores.

What to do next?

CONTACT

• “I don’t see color.”
• “Talking about race brings disunity.”
• Belief that racism is caused by talking about race.
• Belief that you aren’t racist if you don’t purposely or consciously act in racist ways.

How folks move from this stage: by being confronted with active racism or real-world experiences that highlight their whiteness.

Activities:

1. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (Peggy McIntonsh)

Podcasts:

1. Whistling Vivaldi (NPR)

Videos:

1. "I’m Still Here," by Austin Channing Brown (Art of the Sermon)  
2. "White Awake" by Daniel Hill (FSP Chicago)

Articles:

1. "Walking While Black" (Garnette Cadogan)

Books:

1. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria (Beverly Tatum)
2. I’m Still Here (Austin Channing Brown)
3. Whistling Vivaldi (Claude Steel)
4. White Awake (Daniel Hill)  

Educating yourself is important -- utilize resources about racial inequality and biases.

Reject the desire to ask Black folks, Indigineous folks or people of color (BIPOC) to explain racism for you. Instead, find resources created by BIPOC to help educate yourself, or offer to financially compensate BIPOC folks who are educating you!

DISINTEGRATION

• “I feel bad for being white.”
• May feel like you’re stuck.

How folks move from this stage: by participating in anti-racist work.

*Big caution for this stage: be aware that sitting in guilt or shame might move us to the reintegration stage.

Activities:

1. Racial Bias Test (Harvard) --  this will help you understand what your biases might be

Videos:

1. "Why Are White People So Bad at Talking About Race?"  - short video summarizing the book by Robin DiAngelo

Do not let guilt (white guilt) or shame stop you from doing anti-racist work.

Find a way to do the work of anti-racism. Some examples might include attending a training, joining an allies group, participating in a protest. Keep working to grow, instead of settling into shame, and ask folks how you can grow.

REINTEGRATION

• “It’s not my fault I’m white.”
• “I have a black friend/child/relative, etc.”
• May notice yourself feeling defensive when talking about race.

How do folks move past this stage? By combating these feelings of defensiveness, shame or superiority.

Activities:

1. Look over the graph below and reflect on your past, current thoughts/beliefs, and implications of these convictions.

[image source: Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005). Adapted: Ellen Tuzzolo (2016); Mary Julia Cooksey Cordero (@jewelspewels) (2019); The Conscious Kid (2020)]

Podcasts:

1. "Side Effects of White Women" (Small Doses with Amanda Seales)
2. "Well Meaning White People" (Smartest Person in the Room)

Articles:

3. "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism" (Audre Lorde)  
4. "When Feminism is White Supremacy in Heels" (Rachel Elizabeth Cargle)

Books:

1. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Videos:

1. "Bloomberg and The Legacy of Stop-and-Frisk" (The Daily Show)  

Remember that moving forward is important. It might be helpful to revisit some of the previous resources to help remind you of why this work is important.

Continue to find a way to participate. Some examples might include attending a training, joining an allies group, participating in a protest. Keep working to grow, instead of settling into shame.

PSEUDO-INDEPENDENCE

• “How can I be white and anti-racist?”
• Belief that privilege is not based on merit, but on bias & racism.
• Rely on BIPOC to address racism.
• Might affirm or seek to comfort the BIPOC who is addressing racism.

Podcasts:

1. "A Decade on Watching Black People Die" (Code Switch)
2. "How to Be an Antiracist" (Brené Brown + Ibram X. Kendi)

Books:

1. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
2. Why I No Longer Talk to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Loge
3. The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward

Documentary:

1. 13th (Ava DuVernay)

Poem

1. White Privilege (Kyla Lacey)

Videos

1. How Can We Win (David Jones)

Begin having difficult conversations with white friends and family about racism and inequality.

Begin to think about how you might use your privilege to support anti-racist work.

IMMERSION

• Begins to work against systems of oppression, rather than seeing racism as individual actions.
• Is able to embrace their own white identity & what their whiteness means, while also working alongside BIPOC
• Works actively to be anti-racist.

Activities:

Reflective Journal Prompts

1. Think about the country that you live in. What are some of the national racial stereotypes--spoken and unspoken, historic and modern--associated with Black women? Black men?
2. How do you see colorism at work in this country? How do you see colorism at work in your own prejudicial thoughts?
3. How have you expected Black women to serve or soothe you?
4. How have you reacted in the presence of Black women who are unapologetic in their confidence, self-expression, boundaries, and refusal to submit to the white gaze?

Podcasts:

1. Kaepernick (Still Processing)
2. White Lies (NPR)

Articles:

1. "The Case for Reparations" (Ta-Nehisi Coates) 
2. "Why Seeing Yourself Represented on Screen Is So Important" (Kimberley Lawson)
3. 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
4. Resources for White People to Learn and Talk About Race and Racism 

Books:

1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
2. How to be An Antiracist by Ibram Kendi
3. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Video:

1. 5 Tips for Being an Ally

Movies:

1. The New Negro

Complete the journal prompts and consider completing some of the action items laid out in these resources!

AUTONOMY

• Embodied anti-racism: being willing to step in the way of racism when possible, engage in protests
• Has done the work to recognize their own identity, so that they can effectively be anti-racist.
• Recognizes that growth is continual, and they might need to revisit previous stages.

Activities:

Answer these questions (written by Nii Addo Abrahams, M.A., M. Div. / Twitter & Instagram @_nickyflash_)  

• Does your solidarity last longer than a news cycle?
• Does your solidarity make you lose sleep at night?
• Does your solidarity put you in danger?
• Does your solidarity cost you relationships?
• Does your solidarity take away time from other things you could be doing?
• Does your solidarity change the way you spend your money?
• Does your solidarity make you a disruptive presence in white spaces?
• Does your solidarity challenge your country’s values?
• Does your solidarity make you think you’re not racist?
• Does your solidarity change how you read your Bible?
• Does your solidarity change how you preach?
• Does your solidarity happen when no one is looking?
• Does your solidarity ever cause you to speak out when no one wants to listen?
• Does your solidarity ever cause you to shut up when you want to say something?
• Does your solidarity change the way you vote?
• Does your solidarity cause you to denounce our current president?
• Does your solidarity include cis-het Black women?
• Does your solidarity include Black queer and trans folks?
• Does your solidarity make you suspicious of predominantly white institutions?
• Does your solidarity cause you to believe in costly reparations?
• Does your solidarity assuage your white guilt?
• Does your solidarity have room for Black rage?

Online resources:

Racial Equity Tools

Book:

The End of Policing (Alex Vitale)

Social media accounts to follow in any stage:

Instagram:

@wokebrownfem

@nowhitesaviours

@theimtiredproject

@rachel.cargle

@advancementproject

@britthawthorne

@indyamoore

@wearyourvoice

@ckyourprivilege

@alokvmenon

@theunapologeticallybrownseries

@austinchanning

@theconsciouskid

@antiracismctr

@_nickyflash_

@heyqueenyoucute

@brandonkgood

Twitter:

@clintsmithIII

@keeangayamahtta

@DrIbram

@MsPackyetti

@JBouie

@thearmchaircom

@RevJacquiLewis

@drchanequa

@ava

@YNPierce

@esglaude

@jemelehill

@_nickyflash_

@nhannahjones

@professorcrunk

@divafeminist

For those who want to be a better anti-racist in thier faith traditions

Christian resources:

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Jemar Tisby)

Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. (Lenny Duncan)

Disunity in Christ (Christena Cleveland)

The Cross and the Lynching Tree (James Cone)

Reconciliation Blues (Edward Gilbreath)

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America (Michael Eric Dyson)

Trouble I’ve Seen (Drew G. I. Hart)

I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Chanequa Walker-Barnes)

Dear White Christians (Jennifer Harvey)

Divided by Faith (Michael Emerson and Christian Smith)

*We are thankful for all of you who have shared links from your faith traditions. The shared links below have been suggested for addition.

Jewish resources:

Jewish Racial Justice Resources 

Islamic resources:

Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative

Race & Racism (Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative)

Anti-Racism Guide for White Muslims

Buddhist resources:

Radical Dharma   

Angel Kyodo Williams

Lama Rod Owens 

Ruth King 

If you’d prefer to read a novel:

1. Angie Thomas’s The Hate You Give
2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah
3. Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
4. Toni Morrison’s Beloved
5. James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain

Podcast recommendations:

1. White Lies by NPR
2. The 1619 Project  by the New York Times
3. Uncivil by Gimlet Media
4. Pass the Mic by The Witness Podcast Radio
5. Seeing White by Scene On Radio

For those in education:

1. Anti-Racist Educator Self-Questionnaire and Rubric 
2. Anti-Racist Student Self-Questionnaire
3. "Collectors, Nightlights, and Allies, Oh My!" (Marisela Martinez-Cola, JD/PhD)

Accessible resources for the youth:

Antiracist Baby (Ibram X. Kendi)

This Book is Antiracist  (Tiffany Jewell)

Crossover Series (Kwame Alexander)

Young Adult Literature:

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

I am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

Middle grades;

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

New Kid by Jerry Craftf

Resources for parents:

Raising White Kids (Jen Harvey) -- article here: 'Raising White Kids' Author On How White Parents Can Talk About Race 

Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy