The goal of this study was to examine how athletes holding privileged racial identities understand their whiteness as they engage in racial justice activism. Drawing from 12 semistructured interviews with white collegiate athletes who have engaged in activism for racial justice, we identified four higher order themes which we situate within a broader discussion of how each theme either reinforces or disrupts racial power: articulations of (a) racial consciousness, (b) white privilege, (c) white empathy, and (d) white accountability. While the white accountability theme has the potential to disrupt racial power due to its relying on rigorous self-critique, the remaining themes pointed to limited understandings of the systemic nature of racism, which can thus inadvertently (re)produce white supremacy even when engaging in activism for racial justice. Limitations, implications, and future directions for research are discussed to empower more white athletes to reflect critically on whiteness and facilitate systemic change.

这项研究的目的是探讨拥有特权种族身份的运动员在参与种族正义活动时如何理解自己的白人身份。根据对参与种族正义行动的白人大学运动员的 12 次半结构化访谈，我们确定了四个更高层次的主题，我们将它们置于更广泛的讨论中，讨论每个主题如何加强或破坏种族权力：（a）种族意识， (b) 白人特权，(c) 白人同理心，以及 (d) 白人责任。虽然白色责任由于其依赖于严格的自我批评，该主题有可能破坏种族权力，其余主题则指出对种族主义的系统性理解有限，因此即使在从事种族正义行动时，也可能无意中（重新）产生白人至上主义。讨论了研究的局限性、影响和未来方向，以使更多的白人运动员能够批判性地反思白人身份并促进系统性变革。