‘I Really Felt White’: Turning Points in Whiteness Through Interracial Contact

Abstract

Interracial contact has been much debated as a possible solution to the stereotyping and prejudice that are part of the foundation of racial inequality. The focus of most of the research on interracial contact has been on whether such contact can change whites’ attitudes. This paper, while exploring changes in whites’ attitudes based on their contact with people of colour, also shows, through analysis of autobiographical writing by young whites, how interracial contact may change white perceptions of what it means to be white.