White Racial Identity Development

Matthew A. Diemer & Adam M. Voight

White racial identity development (WRID) theory describes how White individuals develop a sense of themselves as racial beings, acknowledge the realities of structural racism and White privilege, and come to accept race as a healthy aspect of themselves and others. Structural racism is defined here as the policies and practices in the fabric of U.S. society that disadvantage non-White individuals; White privilege refers to the rights, advantages, exemptions, and/or immunities granted to White individuals that non-Whites are not provided. WRID is a specific derivation of the more general cultural/racial identity development theory. It is consistent with cultural/racial identity development theory in that it assumes that (a) people have varying levels of awareness about their group identity, (b) the level of awareness is influenced by sociopolitical factors, and (c) the level of awareness has important implications for counseling practice and training. Models William Cross developed a Nigrescence model to explain the ...

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