Why do I help others?

As I continue reading Howard’s book, I consistently am educated on various subjects. In chapter five, he refers to Helms, Helms and Piper’s six stages in the development of White racial identity. These are the six stages: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion-emersion, and autonomy. This section stuck out to me because I think it is something that many White people experience. I’d like to explain some details from each stage.

The first is contact; in this stage White people make their first contact with a non-White person. People are usually ignorant of their White privileges here, but are also hesitant to form relationships with non-Whites. In the disintegration phase, White people acknowledge that they are in fact White, and begin to question how much they have been socialized about race. Sometimes people will feel shame or guilt over their Whiteness during this phase.

After the integration phase, people go through either the reintegration phase or the pseudo-independence phase. In the reintegration phase, those feelings amplify to having anger/fear towards non-Whites; racism is more direct during this phase. The alternative phase, pseudo-independence, is when the negative feelings of being White fade, and they work at “helping” non-Whites. The next phase, immersion/emersion, occurs when people no longer have that desire to help non-Whites, but to change themselves and fellow Whites in a positive way; they want to be proud of their race, without being a racist. The final phase is autonomy; here race is no longer a threat and people just want to eliminate oppression in all its forms.

These six phases are extremely intriguing to me. I think Howard was smart to include the next section in his book after explaining these phases—the next section, he entitled “Cautionary Notes”. He goes on to list some things that White people should be cautionary of when hearing about these phases. We need to recognize when we develop, but should not feel set within these particular phases. Some people are born in the autonomy stage; others never make it past the integration stage.

Reflecting on this passage has made me wonder what stage am I in. Contact? No, I’ve had plenty of experiences with non-White people, and I have no hesitations forming relationships with them. One of my best friends from high school is African-American, and I am so thankful God gave us such a great friendship. Disintegration? I don’t think so. I’m confident that I have been socialized about my race, and I do not feel guilty or ashamed about being White. My next options would be reintegration or pseudo-independence. I don’t believe I am in reintegration because I am not racist; I have no hard feelings towards non-Whites. Pseudo-independence? Maybe. Throughout my aiding placements, I have found myself leaning more towards helping non-White students more so than the Whites. Usually it is because they are the ones needing the additional help, but nonetheless, I tend to have a desire to help them. That would be my guess at where I’m at according to those six stages. One reason why I think I may be in the pseudo-independence stage is because of my worldview.

Within my worldview I believe strongly in God’s commandment of helping others. Matthew 5:16 says this, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” I think it is so important to help others; doing so helps spread the light of Jesus Christ. I don’t think believing this causes me to help non-Whites more than Whites, but I do have a very natural helpful personality—I just like helping others. Hearing about those six stages though gave me more to think about why I am helping them. I’ll definitely have something to ponder as I continue reading through Howard’s book.