ABSTRACT
This research has demonstrated that some characteristics of whiteness were common across the data. The young whites in my research, for the most part, view themselves as passive in regard to the many racialized aspects of their lives. They often describe themselves as recipients of parental messages and claim that certain attitudes are the result of what was put into their minds about “race” by others. Thus, writing about his middle school years, Stephen describes white. Black, and Latino gangs, and then adds “ I was an observer, and what I was observing was very discouraging, not only as a white person, but also as a human being. It started to make me question my own heritage and upbringing." As young adults, these respondents tend to view themselves as passively involved in interracial interactions.
