The Role of Guilt, Shame, and Self-Compassion in Promoting Racial Justice Engagement for White Students

Diversity courses and activities are a part of the multicultural mission of many institutions of higher education. However, universities, colleges, and diversity educators continue to grapple with how to increase participation and student engagement in these courses. The lens of privilege studies provides an important perspective for thinking about how to achieve this goal for White students learning about systems of racial inequity. In the current study, we conducted four studies to better understand how to decrease resistance to reflecting on White privilege (e.g., defensive affect or withdrawal) and to promote racial justice engagement (e.g., willingness to take diversity courses and educate friends about White privilege) among White students. Specifically, Study 1 examined the relationships between White guilt, White shame, and racial justice engagement (i.e., behavioral intentions, racial attitudes, and affective responses) when participants were not first presented with information about White privilege. Study 2 examined the relationship between White privilege awareness, White guilt and White shame, and racial justice engagement (i.e., behavioral intentions, racial attitudes, and affective responses). Study 3 examined the relationship between an ingroup advantage (i.e., White privilege) and an outgroup disadvantage (i.e., Black disadvantage) framework in eliciting White guilt and White shame responses and corresponding levels of racial justice engagement. Study 4 examined the utility of a mindfulness-based self-compassion framing of White privilege to reduce White shame responses, thus increasing racial justice engagement. Across the four studies, participants (n = 549) were undergraduates WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 2 enrolled in an introductory psychology course at either a public university or a private, Midwestern Catholic university who self-identified as White. Findings have potential utility for educators working with White students to help them better understand and manage White students’ responses to White privilege. WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 3 The Role of Guilt, Shame, and Self-Compassion in Promoting Racial Justice Engagement for White Students Scholars have called for the development of privilege studies as a means to further psychology’s social justice mission (e.g., Case, Iuzzini, & Hopkins, 2012). The driving force behind privilege studies is the idea that oppression is a system of disadvantage as well as a system of advantage conferred on the basis of group membership (Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 2007; Goodman, 2011; McIntosh, 1989). Although the mechanisms through which privilege operates differ according to the social identity through which it is conferred, this basic lens can be used to examine the advantages afforded by belonging to dominant groups in the United States (e.g., being White, a man, heterosexual, Christian, able-bodied, and cisgender). The fundamental goal of privilege studies is to draw attention to systems of privilege in order to further a social justice mission that works towards a society that is fair and just to all of its members. Peggy McIntosh, who is well-known for her development and popularization of the concept of White privilege to describe systems of conferring unearned benefits to people who are White in the United States (McIntosh, 1989), has said, “I am convinced that studies of oppression will not go anywhere toward ending oppression unless they are accompanied by understanding of the systems of privilege that cause the systems of oppression” (McIntosh, 2012, p. 204). In the context of racial justice in the United States, privilege studies focus on White privilege in order to further understanding of how racism operates. White privilege describes a number of advantages enjoyed by people who are White on WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 4 the basis of their dominant group membership, such as issuing payment without having their credit questioned, occupying public spaces without being viewed as loitering or interloping, not being singled out by law enforcement on the basis of race, and not being asked to think about or represent their race in many educational, occupational, and social contexts. However, dominant discourses around racism often neglect to include an analysis of White privilege, focusing instead on the disadvantages faced by people of color (Powell, Branscombe, & Schmitt, 2005). The current study aims to contribute to the field of privilege studies by examining how White students responded to a discourse framed in terms of White privilege. Diversity and social justice courses in higher education provide one common venue through which students may begin to develop critical consciousness about systems of privilege and oppression, as well as an interest in and commitment to social justice (Caldwell & Vera, 2010; Case, 2007; Cole, Case, Rios, & Curtin, 2011; Warren, 2010). Through these courses, many students examine their own privileged identities for the first time (Goodman, 2011). Participation in diversity courses and other diversity activities is associated with a number of positive outcomes, such as multicultural competencies (Neville et al., 1996), openness to and appreciation of diversity (Spanierman, Neville, Liao, Hammer, & Wang, 2008), increased awareness of White privilege (Case 2007; Cole et al., 2011), more sophisticated White racial identity ego statuses (Neville et al., 1996), decreased system justifying beliefs (Cole et al., 2011), decreased levels of modern (or color-blind) racism WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 5 (Spanierman et al., 2008), and greater support for affirmative action (Case, 2007). Additionally, participation in diversity courses has been found to result in changes in race-related affect for White students (i.e., White empathy, guilt, and fear), indicating that students in these courses engage emotionally with the course material (Todd, Spanimerman, & Poteat, 2011). However, this development may not be a smooth process, and privileged students often exhibit various behavioral and emotional responses to diversity education that detract from the process of developing a social justice orientation (Adams et al., 2007; Goodman, 2011; Johnson, 2006; Tatum, 1992). Diversity educators have described these undesirable behavioral and affective responses under the broad banner of “resistance” (e.g., Goodman, 2011; Watt, 2007). Given the positive potential of diversity education to raise awareness and commitment to racial and social justice, more research is needed to better understand what produces and what can mitigate resistance to learning about privilege and oppression. In regards to diversity education, scholars have described resistance as an unwillingness to engage in critical thinking or personal exploration around issues of privilege and oppression (Goodman, 2011). Resistance is typically conceptualized as an automatic defensive reaction that stems from fear and discomfort and can take a variety of forms, including vocal resistance (i.e., challenging an educator’s authority), silent resistance (i.e., passive refusal to engage with ideas), and absent resistance (i.e., avoiding courses that address social justice issues) (Goodman, 2011; Higginbotham, 1996; Watt, 2007). Helms’s (1990, 1995) research on White racial identity development proposes WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 6 that White people go through a series of stages in their relationship to issues of race-based disadvantage and privilege, and that the ultimate goal for White people is to construct a positive White identity that is not based on racial superiority and includes a sense of personal responsibility for working toward racial justice. At various points in this process, White people are more or less likely to exhibit resistance; in fact, pushing through resistance may be an important developmental step to overcome past attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in the process of developing a positive, antiracist White identity (Goodman, 2011; Helms, 1995; Kegan, 1982; Okun, 2010). For educators facilitating diversity and social justice courses, it is especially important to both prevent and to engage with resistance productively when it does occur so that a positive, emotionally safe classroom climate is maintained and all students remain engaged in a critical learning process (Adams et al., 2007; Goodman, 2011; Tatum, 1992). In this study, we contribute to research on privilege pedagogy (e.g., Goodman, 2011) by exploring the role of White guilt and shame in White students’ responses to information about racism and White privilege with a focus on preventing and managing resistance behaviors. In Study 1, we examine the associations between White guilt, White shame, and racial justice engagement in the absence of information about White privilege (see Figure 1). In Study 2, we examine the relationship between White privilege awareness, White guilt and shame, and racial justice engagement (see Figure 2). In Study 3, we test the association between a privilege-based framework and a disadvantage-based framework in predicting racial justice engagement, which we propose will be WHITE GUILT, SHAME, AND RACIAL JUSTICE ENGAGEMENT 7 mediated by White guilt and White shame (see Figure 3). In Study 4, we examine how a self-compassion framing may decrease White shame and increase racial justice engagement for White students who participate in an educational activity on White privilege (see Figure 4). To situate this study in the literature, we first examine the impact of framing racism as a system of outgroup disadvantage or ingroup advantage (i.e., White privilege) on White students’ responses. Second, we review past research on White guilt to develop the rationale for examining White guilt and White shame as separate constructs with different behavioral correlates. Finally, we