When white people experience the weight of the past: The role of white identity strategies in linking colonialism to current racial inequalities

How do White Europeans address racial inequalities in times of burgeoning
discussions about colonialism? The current research explores the strategies that White people in the Netherlands use to manage their racial-ethnic identity in relation to linking colonialism and current racial inequalities. With this, we examined how White identity strategies were related to ideologies legitimizing racial inequalities. Using mixed-methods consisting of qualitative interviews (N = 24) and quantitative surveys (N = 564), we found that White people exhibited different combinations of prideful (“I am a proud person of our ethnic heritage”), dissociated (“My ethnic group does not have a significant impact on how I see the world”), and power-cognizant (“I am a White person with privileges because of my ethnic group”) identity strategies. Moreover, these White identity strategies were associated with
linking colonialism and racial inequalities and, thereby, with ideologies legitimizing them. Specifically, White people holding prideful and dissociated strategies were less likely to link colonialism and racial inequalities than White people who exclusively endorsed powercognizance. Furthermore, power-cognizant people challenged current-day racial inequalities the most. We conclude by discussing how White European people legitimize or question racial inequalities by managing their whiteness and the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.