MIDI - White People

White Identity Development Scale

This scale is a modified version of Helms' White Racial Identity Attitudes Scale* (WRIAS). It is a personal assessment tool developed to assist you in the process of identifying which stage you are at in the Helms model of Majority Identity Development (MID). The inventory consists of 50 statements. Some of these statements communicate concrete action, some are descriptive terms, and others are statements of personal values and beliefs. Because, in America, the greatest social distance exists between Whites and Blacks, each of the questions uses Blacks as the "other".

Directions

As you read each statement, decide to what degree that statement is characteristic or descriptive of you. Use the following scale to make your assessment:

5 - Highly Characteristic of Me
4 - Very Characteristic of Me
3 - Frequently Characteristic of Me
2 - Somewhat Characteristic of Me
1 - Not at all Characteristic of Me

Select the appropriate numerical response for each item. Record the response in the blank space provided. Reflect on each statement, but do not spend too much time on any one item. In general, your immediate response is the best one. Please give a response for each item.

1.		Society may have been unjust to Blacks, but it has also been unjust to Whites.
2.		A Black person who tries to get close to you is usually after something.
3.		I value the relationships that I have with my Black friends
4.		I think I understand Black people's values.
5.		It is possible for Whites and Blacks to have meaningful social relationships with each other.
6.		Sometimes jokes based on Black people's experiences are funny.
7.		In my family, we never talked about racial issues.
8.		I feel as comfortable around Blacks as I do around Whites.
9.		I feel hostile when I am around Blacks.
10.		There is nothing that I want to learn from Blacks.
11.		There are some valuable things the White people can learn from Blacks that they can't learn from other Whites.
12.		I do not feel that I have the social skills to interact with Black people effectively.
13.		I involve myself in causes regardless of the race of the people involved in them.
14.		I am comfortable wherever I am.
15.		I find myself watching Blacks to see what they are like.
16.		Blacks and Whites differ from each other in some ways, but neither race is superior.
17.		There are some valuable things that White people can learn from Blacks that they can't learn from other Whites.
18.		I don't understand why Black people blame all White people for their social misfortunes.
19.		I believe I know a lot about Black people's customs.
20.		I hardly think about what race I am.
21.		I get angry when I think about how Whites have been treated by Blacks.
22.		When a Black person holds an opinion with which I disagree, I am not afraid to express my viewpoint.
23.		Blacks and Whites have much to learn from each other.
24.		For most of my life, I did not think about racial issues.
25.		When I must interact with a Black person, I usually let him or her make the first move.
26.		I am knowledgeable about which values Blacks and Whites share.
27.		White people have bent over backwards trying to make up for their ancestors' mistreatment of Blacks and now it is time to stop.
28.		I think that it's okay for Black people and White people to date each other as long as they don't marry each other.
29.		I am not embarrassed to admit that I am White.
30.		I enjoy watching the different ways that Blacks and Whites approach life.
31.		I am curious to learn in what ways Black people and White people differ from each other.
32.		I believe that Blacks are inferior to Whites.
33.		In many ways Blacks and Whites are similar, but they are also different in some important ways.
34.		I seek out new experiences even if I know a large number of Blacks will be involved in them.
35.		I think it is exciting to discover the little ways in which Black people and White people are different.
36.		Blacks and Whites can have successful intimate relationships.
37.		I feel comfortable talking to Blacks.
38.		I used to believe in racial integration, but now I have my doubts.
39.		I limit myself to White activities
40.		I wish I had a Black friend.
41.		I do not understand what Blacks want from Whites.
42.		I'd rather socialize with Whites only.
43.		I have come to believe that Black people and White people are very different.
44.		Sometimes I'm not sure what I think or feel about Black people.
45.		When I am the only White in a group of Blacks, I feel anxious.
46.		I believe that White people look and express themselves better than Blacks.
47.		Nowadays, I go out of my way to avoid associating with Blacks.
48.		I think White people should become more involved in socializing with Blacks.
49.		I was raised to believe that people are people regardless of their race.
50.		I feel depressed after I have been around Black people.

Scoring the Inventory

Your responses have been totaled and transferred into the table below. The question numbers are listed in parenthesis below the Identity Development Stage.

Identity Development Stage (question #'s)	Description of The Stage	Score
Contact (7, 15, 20, 24, 28, 31, 35, 40, 48, 49)	Obliviousness to own racial identity. Approaches the world with a cultureless perspective and general naiveté about how race and racism impact oneself as well as other people. Rarely thinks of oneself in racial terms.
Disintegration (12, 18, 25, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 47, 50)	First acknowledgement of White identity. Awareness of the social implications of race on a personal level. May feel caught between White and Black culture, oppression and humanity.
Reintegration (1, 2, 9, 10, 21, 27, 32, 42, 45, 46)	Idealizes Whites and denigrates Blacks. Anger covertly or overtly expressed as racism, discrimination, or general racial hostility.
Pseudo-Independence (4, 5, 8, 16, 19, 22, 26, 33, 34, 37)	Internalization of Whiteness and capacity to recognize personal responsibility to ameliorate the consequences of racism. Has an intellectual understanding of Black culture and the unfair benefits of growing up White in the U.S.
Autonomy (3, 6, 11, 13, 14, 17, 23, 29, 30, 36)	Internalizes a multicultural identity with non-racist Whiteness as its core. Values cultural similarities and differences, feels a kinship with people regardless of race, and seeks to acknowledge and abolish racial oppression.

Five of the six stages we discussed in class are listed in this table. Based on the information that you provided about yourself in the inventory, the total scores recorded are an indicator of which stage you might be in. A high score (between 40 and 50) in one or more of the four stages means that you have described yourself as having characteristics highly consistent with that stage. These scores, however, are only intended to help you think about your own majority identity development and help you write about it for this class' mini-project. As you write your two-page response paper, please feel free to challenge, to disagree with, or to affirm the results of the inventory as appropriate.

* Helms, J.E. and Parham, T.A. (1990). Black racial identity attitude scale (Form RIAS-B). In J.E. Helms (Ed.), Black and White Racial Identity (pp. 245-247). New York: Greenwood.