Dr. Janet Helms - Stages of Racial Identity Development - ReRooted podcast

Dr. Janet E. Helms joins Francesca to explore the historical roots of whiteness and systemic racism, and offer perspective on privilege and racial identity. Francesca is joined by Dr. Janet E. Helms to explore the concept of whiteness. White is whiteness? What is white-bodied supremacy? Where did this come from in terms of the history of this country? How does it live in people’s psyches, movements, behaviors, and actions? What kind of research supports different ways of being? These questions are explored among others concerning race relations, gender, patriarchy, autonomy, and freedom. Dr. Janet E. Helms is the Augustus Long Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology and Director of the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston College. Learn more about Dr. Helms: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/janet-helms.html https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/sites/isprc.html She is past president of the Society of Counseling Psychology. Dr. Helms is an APA Fellow in Counseling Psychology, Ethnic Diversity, and Psychology of Women. In addition, she is a member of the Association of Black Psychologists, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association. She has written extensively about race, for laypeople as well as for clinicians. Whiteness, Systemic Racism, & The Constitution Dr. Helms and Francesca share on how the concept of whiteness perpetuates racism in this society, and is rooted even in The US Constitution, which actually protects white male heterosexual privilege. Systemic racism has to do with the protection of that privilege, where all the rules, policies, and social practices are essentially designed to protect white male heterosexual privilege. This is rarely in the common vernacular because its recognition poses a threat to the people who have privilege from birth. “Whenever we change a rule about systemic racism in this society, we