White Guilt Research Articles

From Black squares to White guilt: The influence of Black Lives Matter on non-Indigenous views of the Voice to Parliament referendum in Australia

This article examines the impact of the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement on decolonization efforts in Australia, focusing on non-Indigenous Australians’ attitudes towards the Voice to Parliament (VtP). This study utilized surveys (122 respondents) and interviews (11) with predominantly non-Indigenous Australians, conducted before the October 2023 VtP referendum. We found that the BLM movement did not bridge the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Instead, the research highlights a highly polarized environment, particularly evident in the discourse surrounding the VtP referendum. Factors such as the lack of truth-telling regarding Australia's colonial history, media bias, community segregation and political polarization created a complex association between BLM and stances on the VtP. A promising result is that individuals who recognized the link between BLM and challenges faced by Indigenous Australians were more likely to support the VtP. The overall findings indicate that Australia has a way to go towards true reconciliation.

Guilt, shame, and/or both? Further validation of the White Racial Affect Scale.

In this study we assessed the construct validity of the recently published White Racial Affect Scale (Grzanka et al., 2020). Specifically, we assessed the convergent, criterion-related, and incremental evidence for construct validity of the White guilt, White shame, and White defensiveness (called "White negation" in the original article) factors. We used a video stimulus to trigger state guilt and shame in participants as part of the construct validity investigation. White adults in the United States signed up for the study online (N = 262) and watched a 5-min video stimulus and completed questionnaires before and after the video. Results of this study replicated many of the findings from the original White Racial Affect Scale validation study (Grzanka et al., 2020). We found strong evidence of construct validity for the White guilt and White defensiveness factors and mixed evidence for the White shame factor. We discuss directions for future research and implications for potential interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

White Guilt: Antjie Krog’s Begging to Be Black and the Confessional Uncanny

Krog’s Begging to Be Black is an attempt to articulate whiteness in postapartheid South Africa. This article contends that Krog’s desire for blackness is modulated by her persistent “white guilt,” and therefore her memoir foreshadows a mode of writing, the confessional uncanny, whereby her claim to national belonging is expressed.

Reducing acceptability of racial microaggressions using online videos: The role of perspective-taking and white guilt.

Reducing acceptability of racial microaggressions using online videos: The role of perspective-taking and white guilt.

That’s Racist!: Political Correctness Predicts Accusations of Racism in Ambiguous Situations

The present research reports three studies investigating the possibility that Political Correctness (PC) is associated with the tendency to claim racism in ambiguous interactions involving Black and White individuals, despite plausible alternative explanations. In Study 1, PC was significantly related to claiming racism in ambiguous scenarios. In Study 2, these results were replicated with open-ended and prompted scenarios. In Study 3, exposure to PC did not impact claims of racism, indicating the stability of trait PC. In all three studies, White Guilt mediated the relationship between PC and claiming racism, among Whites. Additionally, confidence in the accuracy of open-ended responses (Study 2) was much higher in PC participants, indicating heuristic thinking. Finally, PC predicted claiming racism beyond many related variables.

The Anatomy of ‘White Guilt’

The Anatomy of ‘White Guilt’

Diversity and Disconnection: Does an Online Setting Affect Student’s Understanding of Privilege, Oppression, and White Guilt?

Should educators teach diversity courses in online formats? Courses covering sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, or homophobia are increasingly part of the curriculum requirements for college students. This study compares student surveys from six sections of the author’s introductory Diversity in Politics course; three of these sections are taught asynchronously online, and three are taught in a face-to-face setting. Results reveal no difference between online and face-to-face students’ understandings of privilege and oppression, sense of belonging, or white guilt. However, although all Republican students increased their understanding of privilege and oppression from this course, Republican students uniquely entered the course with less knowledge of oppression and experienced increased growth compared to their online counterparts. The importance of partisanship suggests a more student-centered approach can be valuable in determining the transmissibility of online diversity courses and provides evidence for a successful model for political science diversity courses in online and in-person spaces.

Attempts to Disrupt Whiteness in the Academy: An Autoethnographic Exploration

Abstract There exists now an extensive literature that focuses on decolonisation and decoloniality in higher education, much of it emphasising the continuing and deeply embedded coloniality of institutions in both the global North and South. Engaging with the criticisms that the participation of white people in the critical analysis of decolonisation and decoloniality carries with it the danger of recolonising, I enter this complex morass with vigilance, accompanied, occasionally, by my trickster, Mrs Murphy. Drawing on a range of experiences that will be familiar to those in academic life, I illustrate how, over several years, I have striven to interrogate, autoethnographically, my whiteness. Framing the critical reflection loosely within the principles of Ubuntu, the African philosophy that foregrounds interconnectedness and mutuality, together with conceptualisations of internationalisation, decolonisation and decoloniality, I explore further the extent to which I continue to be implicated in colonial agendas and whether, as such, I am simply indulging white guilt rather than disrupting, actively, my whiteness and the whiteness that continues to pervade the academy. Wary of casting myself as a white heroine, I strive to remain watchful in the reflexive accounts, unable to offer any neat conclusions or recommendations.

The Marginalization of People of Colour through White-guilt in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence

This article explores the notion of white guilt and how it is weaponised, consciously or subconsciously, in the marginalisation of people of colour (POC), especially the Africans in the diaspora. It aims to show how white guilt changes its meaning from positive to negative when not controlled. This medium attempts to explain the struggles faced by black people in the diaspora through the lens of the Duboisian narrative of double-consciousness. It is argued here that white people, through their alleged guilt, cause more damage than good. For context, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence is analysed as it eloquently captures white guilt and its consequences. Findings reveal that the form of social justice practised by white people, stemming from white guilt, gives white people a sense of superiority and causes harm to the psyche, and ultimately lives, of black people.

Understanding the Rise of Anti-Political Correctness Sentiment: The Curious Role of Education

The anti-politically correct (PC) stance has been a key defensive position held by many conservative Americans for more than three decades. This position holds that being forced to be politically correct hinders open dialogue and debate on important yet sensitive issues, especially those around race and racism. However, scholars have questioned this anti-PC orientation and tied it to political orientation and racism. One caveat that stands as the basis of this paper is the role of education in moderating the impact of racial emotions on various outcomes. While some scholars, such as Seymour Lipset, highlight the liberalizing impact of education, others question such impact. Accordingly, this research examines how educational attainment, racial resentment, and White guilt concerning racial injustice interact to impact the likelihood of White Americans taking an anti-PC stance. Our data is drawn from the American National Election Study 2016 pilot survey. In line with past research, we find that racial resentment and White guilt indeed predict views toward political correctness; however, we find educational attainment does not change the effect of these variables on views toward political correctness. We discuss the importance of these findings in relation to prominent social theories on race and social dominance.

The Marginalization of People of Colour through White-guilt in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence

This article explores the notion of white guilt and how it is weaponised, consciously or subconsciously, in the marginalisation of people of colour (POC), especially the Africans in the diaspora. It aims to show how white guilt changes its meaning from positive to negative when not controlled. This medium attempt to explain the struggles faced by black people in the diaspora through the lens of the Duboisian narrative of double-consciousness. It is argued here that white people, through their alleged guilt, cause more damage than good. For context, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence is analysed as it eloquently captures white guilt and its consequences. Findings reveal that the form of social justice practised by white people, stemming from white guilt, gives white people a sense of superiority and causes harm to the psyche, and ultimately lives, of black people.

Building Cultural Competency in Interior Design: When Good Intentions go Awry

A local professional organization for interior designers issued a student design competition for a community cultural center to celebrate and teach others about a specific culture of the student’s choosing. Culture was broadly defined beyond race, nationality, religious, and social beliefs to include any group with shared interests. Students were encouraged to select a culture they might ‘admire’ and want to learn more about. The premise of the project was well intentioned, however the brief embodied outdated notions of culture and contained language which was arguably insensitive. Adding these issues to underlying problems of ‘pick-a-culture’ projects, my first inclination was to decline to participate. However, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic exposed racial disparities in the US culture and economy, I recognized the critical importance of bringing conversations about race, privilege, stereotypes, appropriation, and advocacy into the classroom through reading, critique, and discussion. This paper raises multiple questions about the role of design, design education, and inclusion that surfaced through the project and identifies my own faults in the process. I question: who is allowed to design for ‘others’, was this an appropriate opportunity for minority students to use their own voice, and did I imbue my white guilt into the class? I will also discuss how the intention of design as problem-solving surfaced as power and privilege in conceptual development.

Shared Guilt among Intimates

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to vindicate a common but philosophically puzzling phenomenon: Sometimes, a person experiences extreme guilt in relation to a wrong that their loved one has committed, even though they are not at fault for that wrong. Guilt in these cases violates a foundational principle in our moral lives – viz., the fault principle. On that principle, one is blameworthy for a wrong only if one is at fault with respect to that wrong. Insofar as the family members explored here are not at fault, their professed experience of guilt looks to be irrational. Against the charge of irrationality, I argue that it is sometimes morally appropriate, and perhaps even morally required, to judge oneself to be blameworthy for the wrong of a loved one in which one played no culpable part. Further, insofar as the first-personal experience ought to dictate the responsibility assessments of victims and third parties, I conclude that these other individuals will have reason to take the intimate to be blameworthy too. I end by extending the phenomenon of faultless guilt beyond the intimate context, to the experience of white guilt.

Transnationalising reactionary conservative activism: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of far-right narratives online

ABSTRACT By conducting a qualitative content analysis of 400 far-right posts collected from two UK-based websites – British First and Politicalite, and two Australia-based websites – The Unshackled and XYZ, this article identifies their transnational correspondences in terms of thematic focuses, philosophical foundations, and racial frames. It discusses not only topical issues and events that drive transnational far-right activism, but also its philosophical traditions – from Maurice Barrès’ fin-de-siècle nationalism to Alain de Benoist’s Nouvelle Droite (ND – New Right) thinking and birth-cultural nationalism – and its use of racial frames, such as white guilt, ‘anti-white’ racism and ‘white genocide’. A multimodal critical discourse analysis of selected posts further adds to an understanding of a reactionary backlash against the perceived dominance of liberalism and ‘political correctness’ in contemporary Western democracies.

Iago as the Racist-Function in Othello

Ayanna Thompson has publicly discussed her role as “Othello Whisperer”: she is called in to help Black actors struggling with playing the role of Othello. The reason Black actors struggle with performing this role is because it was not written for them: rather, Othello is a play for white people about how they feel about how Black men are treated. Othello’s early identification as the only Moor in the play marks him for unequal treatment and destruction and, to avoid feeling white guilt over watching this unfair treatment of a Black man, Iago is offered as a scapegoat to give white, middle-class, liberal audiences someone to blame for Othello’s fall, a role I call the “racist-function.” Continuing to (re)produce the play in this manner allows the white audiences for which it is intended to avoid recognizing their own complicity in structural antiblackness. This article traces how the racist-function has changed and evolved over time to meet the needs of white liberal audiences by first analyzing how the text is structured in the Folio and Quarto editions, then demonstrating how later stage and film productions have continued to center whiteness, including case studies of Nicholas Hytner’s 2013 National Theatre and Iqbal Khan’s 2015 RSC stage productions.

Music for Counting Votes

Music for Counting Votes

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

“Rocked by Racism”: A Confessional Tale From a Trainee Practitioner Following a Racism Scandal at an Elite Youth Soccer Academy

In this case study, we present a confessional tale that outlines the unique challenges and experiences of a trainee practitioner working in an elite youth soccer academy, during and following a racism scandal. We first locate our intersectional identities before contextualizing how the racism scandal emerged. Nested within the confessional tale is a series of critical reflections relating to the internal conflict between the trainee practitioner’s values, beliefs, and ethical obligations when working with released players who engaged in the racist behavior, confronting his Whiteness, White privileges, and experiences of White guilt and the lack of a culturally centered framework within the supervisee–supervisor relationship. While the trainee practitioner recognizes the significant work still required to become more culturally humble, we conclude by offering several applied recommendations to support others in developing a more culturally grounded practice framework.

Supplemental Material for Reducing Acceptability of Racial Microaggressions Using Online Videos: The Role of Perspective-Taking and White Guilt

Supplemental Material for Reducing Acceptability of Racial Microaggressions Using Online Videos: The Role of Perspective-Taking and White Guilt

'Waiting with Bated Breath'

'Waiting with Bated Breath'