Author: Morgan Browning Major: Social Work
After completing and defending her thesis, Morgan Browning graduated Summa Cum Laude with her Bachelor’s in Social Work and minor in Spanish.
I am Morgan Browning, a Social Work major and Spanish minor in the Fulbright Honors College. Over the past year and a half, I have been working on my thesis project with the help and guidance of my honors mentor Dr. Kim Stauss, Chair of the School of Social Work. Focusing on increasing the recognition and knowledge of white privilege among college students, I created a program with two interactive sessions and two optional reflective assignments. I tested the effectiveness of this program with 23 participants from historically white greek organizations at the University of Arkansas. During the spring semester of 2021, I analyzed the data collected from pre-tests, post-tests, and qualitative interviews, wrote my thesis, and then passed my thesis defense.
Racism dominates American society, from the normalization of microaggressions, to disproportionate health care, to police brutality. The misunderstanding and denial that surrounds white privilege aids in the perpetuation of racism throughout society. By refusing to recognize its existence, inequality and oppression will persist. I grew frustrated with this denial and wanted to create an effective approach that could be used across campus to educate individuals on the importance of acknowledging white privilege and using that recognition to take action against racism and discrimination.
After proposing my idea to Dr. Stauss during my junior year, she immediately expressed interest in becoming my honors mentor for the project. Her passion for social justice and racial equality, along with her immense amount of knowledge in these areas, helped this project grow into what it needed to be. Dr. Stauss provided me with many resources, including her own published studies and lesson plans from her human diversity classes. She was with me at every step of my project, answering my many questions, helping me present to participants, and supplying me with information on race, racism, and research.
An important aspect of my research was choosing a demographic on campus to recruit. I found that the misunderstanding and denial of white privilege is particularly evident in Historically White Fraternities and Sororities (HWFS). Rooted in a long history of intense racism, these organizations continue to intentionally and unintentionally carry out discriminatory practices. It is not possible to erase the appalling history of these organizations, however, understanding racism, biases, and white privilege will aid in implementing anti-racist and inclusive actions in the community and within individual lives. As a member of a sorority, I felt that in order to begin creating change, I needed to recruit participants from the historically white greek organizations at this university.
Following the completion of my program implementation, I analyzed my data and wrote about my findings. There was no overall significant change between the pretests and posttests. However, the minimal change was directionally positive, meaning that after the program, participants scores were higher. This increase in scores indicated that they agreed more with the statements than before, which correlated to the goals of the study. Furthermore, there were significant differences within certain questions of these tests. The changes emerged in questions regarding desire to, accepting responsibility to, and curious how to change social structures that promote white privilege. Significant changes also appeared in questions examining participants’ feelings surrounding exposing white privilege and exploring its existence. When examining changes among individual participants’ pretests and posttests, I found that that the program had an overall positive effect on over half of the participants. Additionally, over one fourth of participants had a negative change and under one fifth had no change.
Through seven individual interviews, qualitative findings indicated that although many participants felt confident in their knowledge and awareness of white privilege prior to the study, they learned more than they had expected. The program also had a considerable impact on how many participants perceived white privilege and their role in breaking it down.
Similar to the participants, I ended up learning more than I originally expected regarding white privilege, race, and racism. As I researched and presented on these topics, I was able to look at my own life and recognize mistakes I have made in the past and biases I have held. I learned how to better overcome these biases by listening to my thesis advisor, participants, and the individuals who presented during my project. I am able to also speak with others about privilege and racism using the knowledge I have learned. I gained further experience speaking to people about this subject by presenting my research at the Arkansas NASW Conference, the Undergraduate Research Competition, and to individuals within the Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Even with the extensive recruitment procedure, recruiting participants proved to be a difficult task, resulting in the small sample size. Although one of the features of this study was the use of a smaller sample size so that the program could be applicable to university classes, I realized that the minimal amount of participants actually contributed to a less diverse group of people available to study. A majority of participants maintained similar opinions regarding white privilege and were not diverse in race and gender.
I will be attempting to overcome the limitations mentioned above through a continuation of my project during the next year of my Master’s in Social Work program. With the help of Dr. Stauss and individuals within the Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I am planning on expanding the Program to Increase Understanding of White Privilege across campus. I want to recruit participants with different beliefs, races, and genders in order to further analyze the impact of the program.
This program can be further implemented in different areas of social work. For example, individual social workers can use this program to improve their own understanding of white privilege. It can also be implemented within the social work field to teach clients, coworkers, and other groups within a community. Lastly, this project could contribute to change within policy and legislation, specifically those regarding diversity training.