How to become anti-racist

This report illustrates the white racial identity development of American self-identified white antiracists and how they make sense of race, racism, and their own racial identity. Identity formation is a continuous process, white racial identity formation is described by authors as a sense of group collective identity based on the perception that a person shares a common racial heritage with a group. This identity development stems from belief systems that change in reaction to perceived differential group membership. Within this paper, the moments that the individuals became aware of race, racial differences, and racism is reported. These moments are turning points which happened in different life phases of the respondents. Such as their childhood, education, travelling and their adult communities. Turning points were often triggered through experiences the individuals had with race and racism, e.g., by being marginalised themselves and interacting with people of colour, activists, and family members. Turning points in earlier stages of their life influenced the choices they made later in life regarding, among other things, what school to go to, with whom to associate and where they wanted to be employed. A qualitative grounded theory approach is applied to examine the case of 20 self-identified white anti-racists in America. In doing so this report will be a contribution to our understanding of white racial identity formation in relation to becoming an anti-racist.