White Identity and its Inherent Ties to Americanism
Faculty-Student Collaboration
1
Faculty Sponsor(s)
Piljoo Kang, Ph.D.
Presentation Type
Event
Project Type
Completed qualitative research study
Primary Department
Psychology
Description
White individuals often experience negative emotions such as guilt and anger when talking about White identity and privilege (Dottolo & Stewart, 2013). Although these negative emotions can work as catalysts for social justice activism, the remorse and distress may be overwhelming and counterproductive (Pinterits et al., 2009). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 undergraduate college students from the southeastern area of the United States. The participants were asked open-ended questions about how they perceive their own White identity, white culture, and about white privilege and white guilt. We then organized the transcribed data into thematic categories utilizing the collection function of Transana, a qualitative data analysis program. We found that participants struggled to talk about their White identity and what white culture was. Instead, they articulated their White identity in terms of being American, as national identity could be seen as more value-neutral than racial identity. White identity in America may be intrinsically tied to white privilege and white guilt, so White individuals may describe their identity in terms of other intersectional identities.
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White Identity and its Inherent Ties to Americanism
White individuals often experience negative emotions such as guilt and anger when talking about White identity and privilege (Dottolo & Stewart, 2013). Although these negative emotions can work as catalysts for social justice activism, the remorse and distress may be overwhelming and counterproductive (Pinterits et al., 2009). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 undergraduate college students from the southeastern area of the United States. The participants were asked open-ended questions about how they perceive their own White identity, white culture, and about white privilege and white guilt. We then organized the transcribed data into thematic categories utilizing the collection function of Transana, a qualitative data analysis program. We found that participants struggled to talk about their White identity and what white culture was. Instead, they articulated their White identity in terms of being American, as national identity could be seen as more value-neutral than racial identity. White identity in America may be intrinsically tied to white privilege and white guilt, so White individuals may describe their identity in terms of other intersectional identities.
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Also presented at Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV, May 2025