The Implicit Association Test results

1. The Implicit Association Test results

2. Results from the US race implicit association test

4. Spinning into Butter

5. Explanation of exercise • Consider the statements in front of you • As a group, choose four statements. These will be statements that you feel most strongly about (positively, negatively or ambivalently). • These statements are primarily from the point of view of a White person because we are trying to make Whiteness and its effects visible rather than always studying Indigenous people • However, non-White people can also choose statements they feel strongly about

6. Statement exercise

7. White Racial Identity Development • Janet Helms first called attention to the significance of White racial identity in 1984 basing her model on previous work from the 1960s and 1970s in the area of identity theory for non-white racial groups • Helms’ model has been revised several times since then and in its latest formulation consists of two broad phases and six individual stages

8. Phase 1: Abandonment of Racism Contact Stage • In this stage an individual has only a superficial and inconsistent awareness of being White. S/he denies, is oblivious to, or avoids anxiety-evoking racial information and experiences • People in this stage accept the racial status quo of society as normal and taken for granted and think of themselves and others as raceless and colour-blind

9. Phase 1: Abandonment of Racism Disintegration Stage • This stage is epitomised by feelings of disorientation, confusion and suppression of information due to racial moral dilemmas or experiences that highlight the racialised and racist nature of society

10. Phase 1: Abandonment of Racism Reintegration Stage • In this stage information is interpreted in order to idealise what is White and denigrate that which is not White • This stage is characterised by the belief that White people are superior to non-White people and there is a denial of any responsibility for perpetrating racism or the existence of racism at all among individuals in this stage

11. Phase 2: Defining a Nonracist White Identity Pseudo-independence • Racial experiences are interpreted to fit a ‘liberal’ societal framework in this stage • There is a view that overt racism is not acceptable but that non-White people are in fact dysfunctional, culturally deprived and inferior through no fault of their own and they should be helped to be more like Whites • White people in this stage recognise that racism exists but feel no personal responsibility for it

12. Phase 2: Defining a Nonracist White Identity Immersion/Emersion • In this stage a person has an outlook where s/he tries to understand the ways in which they contribute to, and benefit from White privilege • This stage is a process of re-educating oneself and other Whites whilst searching for an internally-defined positive racial identity as a White person

13. Phase 2: Defining a Nonracist White Identity Autonomy • This stage is characterised by active involvement in social change and a realisation of the benefits one has been entitled to due to Whiteness. In this final stage, people have an understanding of the complexity of oppression, have flexible responses to racial material and are in a continual process of striving towards non-racist standards

14. Although this schema suggests a linear progression from contact through to autonomy, in practice people may skip certain stages and/or may move back and forth between different stages throughout their life • Also Helms notes that ‘most individuals develop more than one status, and if multiple statuses exist, then they can operate in concert…and blended stages describe people’s reactions more often than a ‘pure’ status

15. How does White identity affect research? • Consider a hypothetical project: ‘Exploring women’s experiences of childbirth at Royal Darwin Hospital.’ • A cross-sectional survey is being done with sample of women who gave birth at RDH in order to determine how to design and implement an intervention to improve service • Consider how this research might be conducted by researchers at each of the different White identity stages. Discuss: • Which population groups will be included in the study? • Will the study be conducted differently for various participants? • How would Indigenous people be employed, if at all, as part of the research project and/or included in the dissemination of findings? • How will any inequalities identified be interpreted by the researchers? • What intervention, if any, would be recommended for Indigenous women?

17. If the researcher is unable to examine the effects of her or his own racial development on her or his research activities, then the research risks contributing to the existing body of racially oppressive literature rather than offering illuminating scholarship. For White researchers, White identity theory postulates that an important step in the self-examination process is the development of the capacity to call oneself White and acknowledge the various sociopolitical as well as cultural implications of being a member of the White group (Helms 1993:242)

20. Black Racial Identity Development • Revised model consists of two broad phases and five individual stages: • Conformity, dissonance, immersion/emersion, internalisation and integrative awareness

21. Conformity (Pre-encounter) • Individual accepts dominant societal ideology/norms, wishes to assimilate, and distances themselves from other Blacks. Denial, minimisation and selective perception • People in this stage accept the racial status quo of society as normal and use victim-blaming and culture as ‘pathology’ explanations of Black ‘failure to succeed’

22. Dissonance (encounter) • This stage is epitomised by feelings of disorientation, ambivalence, confusion and suppression of information due to racial moral dilemmas or experiences that highlight the racialised and racist nature of society

23. Immersion/Emersion • This stage is epitomised by a powerful desire to learn about and glorify Black culture/people. An essentialised, idealised and externally defined notion of Black identity is espoused • What is perceived to be White culture/people are denigrated, demonised and rejected and there is a hypersensitivity to racial stimuli

24. Internalisation • Controlled anger toward racist institutions, dedicated long-term commitment and a decline in anti-White feelings are attributes of this stage • A more balanced view and attitude toward ‘Blackness’ is also found during this stage and an internally defined notion of identity

25. Integrative Awareness • The individual becomes a social activist motivated by globally humanistic self-expression • There is a capacity to value one’s own collective identities as well as empathise and collaborate with members of other oppressed groups • The complexity of social worlds is recognised and flexible analyses and responses to racial stimuli are employed