Apigo, Cal

Williams HG
2/7/19

Tatum Ch 6 AQs
1. The first stage is contact, in which the white person realizes their whiteness (as they have
usually seen themselves as “normal” surrounded by similar white people) and understand
why it matters. In the book, a man from a predominantly white neighborhood would go
through other neighborhoods with people of color and seeing that the neighborhood was
run down and poor, it made him realize that driving through the other neighborhoods
unconsciously associated white people with good (as their neighborhoods were nicer and
more affluent) and consequentially placing everyone else as “them,” associating people
of color with something bad. Here, the white man realizes his privilege and society’s
unconscious association of white being “generally good.”

2. The second stage is reintegration, in which the white person starts to see how racism
affects their lives and the lives of people of color. They start to understand why race
matters and why it’s not good enough to believe race doesn’t exist. Contradicting the
status quo (which they’ve experienced their entire lives), they feel cognitive dissonance,
leading almost everybody to feel uncomfortable. Certain people continue to stay ignorant
while others take action. An example of this is the woman’s response to racist jokes and
saying something about it, leading to friction between her and her family because they
viewed her as too serious or losing her sense of humor. Here she realizes her race, acts
up, and as a result has to deal with cognitive dissonance. Yet, she continues and stays
strong through her cognitive dissonance.

3. The third stage is called reintegration, where a white person realizes they can’t stay
ignorant their entire life so they try to relieve it as easily as possible, leading to blaming
people of color for the problem of racism. An example is a white, Italian woman who
never realized or understood the significance of her race until she went to college and
surrounded herself with people of color, causing her to realize her privilege. As a result,
she felt guilty but also attacked because she could not control the color of her skin. She
then felt angry towards minority groups, showing reintegration as she started to blame the
victims of racism.

4. As awareness of the issue of racism deepens and they commit to unlearning their passive
racism, a person enters the 4th stage, called the pseudo-independent stage. Here, they
continue to question and learn about racism to understand how it affects their
subconscious thinking. For example, a white student wrote that they wanted to remove
their whiteness and try to ignore their privilege and responsibility to do something about
it. Here, the white student realizes the implications of their race and tries to unlearn their
Apigo, Cal
Williams HG
2/7/19

passive racism by trying to integrate themselves and act non-white to escape the reality of
being white.

5. The fifth stage is called immersion/emersion, where people recognize the need to find a
more positive definition of themselves, who need to look to other whites who are further
along in the process to help them. Due to the lack of information about white activism
against racism, it’s hard to find information on how to successfully create change, but it’s
important to look to other white antiracist activists as guides. For example, Tatum brings
the white antiracist activist Andrea Ayvazian to her class, where students can ask
questions and show how to start becoming an antiracist activist (because the answer is far
from simple). This often brings hope as becoming an activist often leads to alienation, so
knowing that supportive allies are close by can help. It’s important to understand that you
can’t ignore your race or its implications (as it’s who you are) but you don’t have to feel
bad for being white because it was out of your control. You just have to accept your
identity and understand that you can still help fight against racism.

6. The last stage is called autonomy, in which a person incorporates their newly defined
definition of being white and becomes active in confronting and fighting racism.
Although this is the culmination of White Identity Development, it’s important to note
that it never really ends as people at this level continually learn more about the complex
issue of racism.

7. Similar to our dialogue groups, all white discussion groups provide a different
environment where they feel more comfortable sharing and trying to understand their
own experiences. Being the agent group, it’s hard to work through feelings of guilt and
shame, but talking in a group that had many of the same feelings provides a place to
productive help white people get past that so they can become self-aware activists. I think
this is really important because especially when talking about race, the first thing you
always think before sharing is “will I offend anyone.” It’s a good thing that people are
cautious, but this often leaves many viewpoints behind as they don’t want to share them.
When I talked with the East/South East Asian group, I learned about pervasive
stereotypes about Asians that I thought were good, but were actually very damaging and
harmful (ex. Asians are good at math) because on the surface they seem good. I failed to
realize the implications of Asians who do not follow this stereotype, who are often
shunned or “otherized” as a result. Some Asians did touch on this when in the big group,
but it was in the Asian only group that I understood the full extent of these stereotypes
problems because they felt more comfortable sharing it.