Ambivalent White Racial Consciousness: Examining Intersectional Reflection and Complexity in Practitioner Graduate Training

Abstract

Ambivalent White racial consciousness describes a push toward awareness about racial privilege and a simultaneous pull back from this knowledge into a more comfortable stance of denial. Twenty-nine White community members and undergraduate students participated in focus group discussions on race. Results indicated that participants expressed ambivalent racial consciousness when they talked about: what it means to be White, their non-racial identities, oppression, attributions for racial inequality, and interracial interactions. Deconstructing ambivalent White racial consciousness can help trainers identify points of intervention for White graduate student practitioners to critically reflect on the intersections between White racial identity and systemic oppression.