Recontextualizing Whiteness: Understanding White Identity in the Era of Black Lives Matter

This study contributes to the growing literature on white identity in American politics by examining how dominant in-group identification varies among individuals and how expressions of white identity respond to shifts in social and political context that disrupt the racial order. Drawing on three rounds of in-depth interviews with white residents of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota from 2020 to 2023, I identify three ideal types of white identifiers: Type I (low awareness), Type II (disadvantaged awareness), and Type III (advantaged awareness). The findings suggest that the 2020 uprising constituted an epistemic disruption that heightened the salience of whiteness, prompting varied responses ranging from grievance to solidarity. While some participants reverted to prior identity expressions as the disruption faded, others maintained increased awareness and engagement. This study highlights the contextual nature of white identity and underscores the limitations of survey-based approaches in capturing its complexity. It offers a typology and framework for understanding how white Americans navigate racial identity amid sociopolitical change.