Covid-19 as natural intervention: Guilt and perceived historical privilege contributes to structural reform under conditions of crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic has been described as an unmasking of persistent racialized inequalities linked to South Africa’s oppressive past. However, such observations lack empirical support. Here we examined whether Covid-19 lockdown conditions encouraged greater perceptions of continuing structural racism together with motivational and behavioral support for social justice, and whether guilt or empathic concern undergirded such responses. A national sample of White South Africans’ data suggest that the pandemic served as a natural intervention, fostering greater acknowledgment of structural racism and support for redress through increased awareness of historical privilege and guilt in response to Black hardship. Guilt furthermore predicted a social justice motivation in relief efforts, whereas empathic concern predicted only charity motivation. These results suggest that ‘White guilt’ is more consequential than empathic concern in contributing to structural reform, but would require longer-term processes to support the translation of its motivational push into sustainable contributions to social justice.

Introduction

The introduction explains that the Eastern Main Line between Mozambique and South Africa was never designed to carry passengers but to serve an agricultural economy and, later, to transport coal and mining machinery. Yet, its primary function became the round-trip transportation, under the cover of darkness, secrecy and white guilt, of the thousands of black miners who helped construct the twentieth-century South African economy.

Teaching What We Don't Know

In this chapter, the authors analyze two community-based learning (CBL) courses designed to help preservice teachers understand how issues of race and power emerge in classrooms. Students enrolled in a reflection-oriented course demonstrated deep understanding of their white identities and developed a desire to enact social justice pedagogy; however, they also expressed anxiety about effectively teaching diverse students. Similarly, students enrolled in an action-oriented course were unable to engage in Critical Race Praxis in their community placements due to colorblind mindsets and feelings of white guilt. While some students understood white privilege to function through systems of oppression, many students adopted a white savior mentality. These outcomes suggest that white preservice teachers can imagine being change agents better than actually being change agents. Teacher educators should use CBL to help white preservice teachers develop the cognitive and emotional capacities for Critical Race Praxis prior to student teaching in diverse classrooms.

The White Racial Affect Scale (WRAS): A Measure of White Guilt, Shame, and Negation

The construct White guilt is typically motivated by the recognition of unearned and unfair racial privileges, the acknowledgement of personal racist attitudes or behavior, and/or the sense of responsibility for others’ racist attitudes or behavior. Empirical and conceptual work suggests mixed consequences of White guilt: it may correspond with antiracist attitudes and behavior, but it may also motivate defensiveness and disengagement. We addressed weaknesses in existing psychometric tools used to measure White guilt by synthesizing approaches from the literature on White racial emotions and self-conscious affect, and by attempting to distinguish between White guilt and shame. The results of Study 1 yielded a three-factor structure of White Guilt, Negation, and White Shame, and provided initial support for construct validity. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis provided mixed support for a three-factor structure. In Study 3, our results suggest test-retest reliability over two weeks.