Whiteness, anti-blackness, and trauma: A grounded theory of white racial meaning making

This constructivist grounded theory study reveals nine interrelated components that describe white undergraduates’ processes for making meaning of issues of race and racism in their environments. Findings also reveal how these processes perpetuate whiteness and anti-blackness. I present the theory as a composite counternarrative that draws upon data from 31 white undergraduate students and foregrounds Black students’ experiences with racism on campus. The resulting juxtaposition highlights how whiteness and anti-blackness, on a spiritual level, function as pathologies that perpetuate trauma.