Intervening in White youths’ ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development during adolescence can support the development of positive anti-racist ideologies and behaviors that challenge privilege and oppression, increase awareness of and reduce implicit bias, and embrace positive intergroup contact attitudes; yet, little is known within developmental science regarding how White adolescents develop their ERI within the United States’ sociohistorical context. Thus, this paper reviews the current literature on White ERI development and applies the Integrative Model (Garc�a Coll et al., 1996) through its keen attention to how structures of power, privilege, and oppression have a direct impact on various environments and experiences for young people, to White youths’ ERI development. The social stratification of whiteness, ethnic-racial socialization in White families, school ethnic-racial socialization, and color-evasive and anti-racist adapting cultural systems are explored as mechanisms that impact White adolescents’ ERI development within a macrosystem characterized by white supremacy.

Recent national events and persistent inequities and injustices based on ethnicity and race demonstrate that the United States (US) is a society that continues to grapple with white supremacy. White supremacy and systemic racism are defined as the sociohistorical and current ways that institutions and systems (eg, economic, legal, political, social, educational, and ideological structures) maintain and increase power and dominance for White [1] Americans while simultaneously perpetuating oppression and disadvantage for Americans of color (Lewis et al., 2019). Limited research in developmental psychology has focused on identifying and targeting the internal processes that influence White individuals’ actions and choices in protecting or disrupting white supremacy. Research on how White youth develop their ethnic-racial identity (ie, ERI) can contribute to our understanding of this topic. ERI development is defined as how youth come to understand aspects of their identity related to their race and ethnicity as well as develop beliefs and attitudes related to their ethnic-racial group membership (Uma�a-Taylor et al., 2014); thus, it follows that white ERI development is how White youth develop an understanding of their identity as it relates to their race and ethnicity. The Integrative Model offers a unique framework for understanding and