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October Staff Pick: Brendan on Revisiting the Helms White Identity Model
Essential Question: What brought you to this work? What is keeping you in this work?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
Overview:
This year’s Inquiry Series invites us to revisit past resources through the lens of 2025. Our topics will include white identity development, white antiracist leadership, and later in the year, discussions on risk, partnership, and joy. These themes help us not only understand this historical moment, but also reflect on our role as white people in this work and sustain our energy and commitment moving forward.
Last month, we used the 5 Whys reflection tool to pause and explore our motivations, values, and beliefs at this stage of our antiracism journey. This month, we return to a resource from our very first series: Helm’s White Identity Development Model, first introduced in June 2019 as an additional resource. Since then, we have revisited Helm’s many times because it has proven to be a useful tool for understanding our own development and for recognizing the stages of white identity in those we hope to engage in the movement. It has been helpful for reflection before/after engaging our colleagues, families, and communities in productive dialogue about racism and whiteness.
If you reviewed Helms with us back in 2018 (or on your own in other spaces), what has changed for you since your first review? Are the things that brought you to antiracism work different from the things that have kept you in the work today? For example, I came to BARWE seeking to be a better educator to my students of color (maybe pseudo-independence). Through my work with the BARWE community, I’m seeking opportunities to influence systemic change and deeper accountability (moving towards autonomy). As an organizer, I am reconnecting to Phase 1 of Helm’s model in order to better understand the needs and perceptions of the people I try to engage in anti-bias and identity work.
Building on the 5 Whys, we encourage you to revisit Helm’s model and reflect on your own journey. Whether you’ve been with BARWE since 2018 or are joining us for the first time, take stock of where you’ve been, where you hope to go, and who you are traveling with in your antiracism journey. It can help motivate, connect, and deepen appreciation for the ongoing work of becoming antiracist. In November we will build on this month by exploring white antiracist leaders whose stories served as examples in shaping our development.
Primary Resource: https://marypendergreene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/HelmsWhiteIDModel.pdf
Discussion Questions:
As you gather for this month’s discussion, take a few moments to reflect on your own journey using Helm’s White Identity Development Model. These prompts are meant to guide conversation, helping you notice your growth, the experiences that have shaped you, and the ways you engage with others in this work. There are no right or wrong answers. What matters is your curiosity, honesty, and willingness to explore where you are, where you hope to go, and who you are bringing along with you.
Secondary Resources:
Teaching While White Podcast, Episode 16: Racial Identity for White People with Dr. Janet Helms
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
NEW for this series! We are encouraging readers to talk back to BARWE. The feedback form is a single question based on this month's resource.
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
This month we are encouraging readers to donate to the Fund for Immigrant Justice. Through the Fund for Immigrant Justice, NSC extends free legal services to clients who face significant barriers to accessing services — such as unaccompanied children, individuals without permanent shelter, people in long-term care facilities, and those suffering significant financial hardship. We also work with community-based organizations to offer free legal clinics and provide trustworthy information about legal relief.
The Fund for Immigrant Justice allows NSC to support a full-time attorney to provide free legal services, while also covering filing and administrative fees in certain cases. 100% of the dollars raised for the Fund for Immigrant Justice goes to serving clients and eliminating barriers to access. When you invest in the Fund for Immigrant Justice, you’ll help ensure that immigrants in difficult circumstances who are seeking to build a new life will have a fair opportunity to make their claims with the aid of an attorney.
October Staff Pick: Brendan on Revisiting the Helms White Identity Model
Essential Question: What brought you to this work? What is keeping you in this work?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
Overview:
This year’s Inquiry Series invites us to revisit past resources through the lens of 2025. Our topics will include white identity development, white antiracist leadership, and later in the year, discussions on risk, partnership, and joy. These themes help us not only understand this historical moment, but also reflect on our role as white people in this work and sustain our energy and commitment moving forward.
Last month, we used the 5 Whys reflection tool to pause and explore our motivations, values, and beliefs at this stage of our antiracism journey. This month, we return to a resource from our very first series: Helm’s White Identity Development Model, first introduced in June 2019 as an additional resource. Since then, we have revisited Helm’s many times because it has proven to be a useful tool for understanding our own development and for recognizing the stages of white identity in those we hope to engage in the movement. It has been helpful for reflection before/after engaging our colleagues, families, and communities in productive dialogue about racism and whiteness.
If you reviewed Helms with us back in 2018 (or on your own in other spaces), what has changed for you since your first review? Are the things that brought you to antiracism work different from the things that have kept you in the work today? For example, I came to BARWE seeking to be a better educator to my students of color (maybe pseudo-independence). Through my work with the BARWE community, I’m seeking opportunities to influence systemic change and deeper accountability (moving towards autonomy). As an organizer, I am reconnecting to Phase 1 of Helm’s model in order to better understand the needs and perceptions of the people I try to engage in anti-bias and identity work.
Building on the 5 Whys, we encourage you to revisit Helm’s model and reflect on your own journey. Whether you’ve been with BARWE since 2018 or are joining us for the first time, take stock of where you’ve been, where you hope to go, and who you are traveling with in your antiracism journey. It can help motivate, connect, and deepen appreciation for the ongoing work of becoming antiracist. In November we will build on this month by exploring white antiracist leaders whose stories served as examples in shaping our development.
Primary Resource: https://marypendergreene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/HelmsWhiteIDModel.pdf
Discussion Questions:
As you gather for this month’s discussion, take a few moments to reflect on your own journey using Helm’s White Identity Development Model. These prompts are meant to guide conversation, helping you notice your growth, the experiences that have shaped you, and the ways you engage with others in this work. There are no right or wrong answers. What matters is your curiosity, honesty, and willingness to explore where you are, where you hope to go, and who you are bringing along with you.
- Where are you now? Thinking about Helm’s White Identity Development Model, where do you see yourself at this point in your journey? What’s shifted since you first started this work?
- What’s helped you grow? What experiences, readings, or conversations have shaped how you understand your white identity and your role in antiracist work?
- What do you notice in others? How do you see the stages of white identity development showing up in colleagues, family, or community members? How might noticing this influence how you engage with them?
- How does reflection fuel action? How can assessing your own growth help you stay committed, energized, and connected to this work long term?
Secondary Resources:
Teaching While White Podcast, Episode 16: Racial Identity for White People with Dr. Janet Helms
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders. If you’re meeting in person, snacks are always a good idea!
- Send this month’s journal prompt to your group. Look through the additional readings to see if there is another reading that might be better suited to your group and its interests.
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
Feedback Form:
NEW for this series! We are encouraging readers to talk back to BARWE. The feedback form is a single question based on this month's resource.
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
This month we are encouraging readers to donate to the Fund for Immigrant Justice. Through the Fund for Immigrant Justice, NSC extends free legal services to clients who face significant barriers to accessing services — such as unaccompanied children, individuals without permanent shelter, people in long-term care facilities, and those suffering significant financial hardship. We also work with community-based organizations to offer free legal clinics and provide trustworthy information about legal relief.
The Fund for Immigrant Justice allows NSC to support a full-time attorney to provide free legal services, while also covering filing and administrative fees in certain cases. 100% of the dollars raised for the Fund for Immigrant Justice goes to serving clients and eliminating barriers to access. When you invest in the Fund for Immigrant Justice, you’ll help ensure that immigrants in difficult circumstances who are seeking to build a new life will have a fair opportunity to make their claims with the aid of an attorney.