ABSTRACT
The evolution of a positive White racial identity consists of two processes, the abandonment of racism and the development of a non-racist White identity. In order to develop a healthy White identity, defined in part as a nonracist identity, virtually every White person in the United States must overcome one or more of the aspects of racism. One of the concomitants of being a White person in the United States is that one is a member of a numerical majority as well as the socioe-conomically and politically dominant group. Autonomy represents the highest level of White racial identity and might be thought of as racial self-actualization or transcendence, perhaps it is best to think of it as an ongoing process. Each of the White racial identity stages is hypothesized to have its own unique effect on attitudes, behaviors, and emotions. In the Reintegration stage, the person consciously acknowledges a White identity.
