"I don't think there is much racism left": A critical analysis of White adolescents' (un)awareness of white privilege.

Abstract

The current article uses theories and perspectives from critical whiteness studies to investigate how white adolescents' (N = 69, M age = 15.91 years) narratives of white privilege are implicated in the maintenance (and disruption) of white supremacy. Contrary to scientific and public narratives that position white youth as "unaware," we find that 90% of participants (n = 62/69) in the present study were aware of and named white privilege. However, qualitative analysis revealed the ways in which white youth's awareness of white privilege was disconnected from a critical examination of systems of power or their own racial identities. Disconnected awareness of white privilege reinforced white supremacy via three manifestations; white adolescents were aware but (a) untroubled by privilege, (b) forgetful of privilege, and (c) avoidant of responsibility to address privilege inequities. Our findings emphasize that awareness of white privilege alone does not just pull white adolescents in the direction of antiracism or toward an antiracist white identity. Using critical whiteness studies, we discuss the implications of our findings for burgeoning developmental theories, models, and research on white identity and antiracism, and the need to advance a critical study of whiteness in developmental psychology.