| Previous research on white racial identity (WRI) has typically relied on questions that have asked whites questions that measure their self awareness of themselves as white, their feelings of belonging to a white racial group, and their attitudes towards racialized ethnic others. These measures equate white racial identity exclusively with group membership, which only captures the structural components of whites racial identities. Group membership serves as one proxy of racial identity, but white racial identities also have important interactional and cultural components that cannot be captured by measuring group membership alone. In this research, this goal is achieved by the creation of a White Racial Identity Scale (WRIS) which includes traditional questions that ask whites about their group membership but includes new questions that measure whites American, Cross-Racial, Ethnic, Racial and Institutional attitudes, behaviors and preferences. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted, revealing 8 factors that contribute to WRI. These factors supported and expanded upon the factors that were hypothesized. These factors were then subjected to linear regression to determine the ways socio-demographic factors impact WRI. Findings show that the factors that contribute to WRI do differ by religion, racial composition of networks and neighborhood, gender, income, Michigan residency and family prejudice. Adding in these items allow for a measure of white racial identity that goes beyond group membership to measure how respondents perform and present these identities in social interactions. |
