A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life is designed to help White people fully recognize and accept their racial identity, assume the proper responsibility for ending racism, and develop an understanding of how racism impacts their own racial group.

This powerful text encourages positive racial adjustment and deeper levels of self-understanding. The book explores the meaning of race in society, the color-blindness movement, the problem of ignorance about Whiteness, the various phases of internalized racism, and other critical topics. Evocative and meaningful activities throughout the text foster reflection and increased levels of self-awareness and acceptance.

The third edition features updated references and charts, as well as a new foreword by Dr. Allen Ivey.

A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have is part of the Cognella Series on Advances in Culture, Race, and Ethnicity. The series, endorsed by Division 45 of the American Psychological Association, addresses critical and emerging issues within culture, race, and ethnic studies, as well as specific topics among key multicultural groups.

A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life is designed to help White people fully recognize and accept their racial identity, assume the proper responsibility for ending racism, and develop an understanding of how racism impacts their own racial group.

This powerful text encourages positive racial adjustment and deeper levels of self-understanding. The book explores the meaning of race in society, the color-blindness movement, the problem of ignorance about Whiteness, the various phases of internalized racism, and other critical topics. Evocative and meaningful activities throughout the text foster reflection and increased levels of self-awareness and acceptance.

The third edition features updated references and charts, as well as a new foreword by Dr. Allen Ivey.

A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have is part of the Cognella Series on Advances in Culture, Race, and Ethnicity. The series, endorsed by Division 45 of the American Psychological Association, addresses critical and emerging issues within culture, race, and ethnic studies, as well as specific topics among key ethnocultural groups.

Janet E. Helms is the Augustus Long Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology and the director of the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston College. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Helms is past president of the Society of Counseling Psychology (Division 17 of the APA). She received the 2019 APA Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychology in the Public Interest and has served on the editorial boards of the journals of Assessment, Counseling Psychology, Cultural Diversity, and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Dr. Helms has written many articles and books, and conducts workshops on racial identity, counseling practice, and mental health.

This book examines the major theories of Black and White racial identity. Moreover, theoretical perspectives that were originally developed to describe social fomentation have been updated and expanded to explain the role of racial identity in counseling dyads, social relationships, and groups. Measures for assessing racial identity are described. Original research addresses the relationship of racial identity to other personality characteristics such as value orientations, decision-making styles and counseling process variables such as satisfaction, counselor strategies, and client reactions.

Part 1 presents basic racial identity theory and measurement issues as they pertain to individuals and intergroup functioning. Ideally this material will be useful to persons who are seeking a basic introduction to Black and White racial identity theory. Part 2 introduces empirical attempts to examine the correlates of racial identity. This section is primarily intended for the reader who is interested in generating research questions and/or evaluating some of those that already have been generated. Part 3 includes speculative and empirical chapters that study the influence of racial identity on everyday interactions. This material also describes the influence of racial identity attitudes on various kinds of counseling interactions. The final chapter presents models for promoting identity development. This book should appeal to anyone interested in the social and behavioral sciences, including psychiatry, social work, and cross cultural psychology; nursing and education.