White guilt is positive?

A University of Texas at Austin press release came out earlier this month, and was mentioned in yesterday's Opinion Journal. The University studied a method of teaching children about racism and concluded that teaching both white and black children about racism. They conclude: "Challenging the idea that racism education could be harmful to students, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin found the results of learning about historical racism are primarily positive." What's odd, though, is this statement: "White children whose lessons included information on discrimination showed more defensiveness, had more racial guilt (if they were older than 7) and were less likely to accept stereotypical views about African Americans."

I agree with James Taranto over at Opinion Journal. It's very odd that they talk about racial guilt and personal defensiveness among white children learning these and don't talk about how that balances against the positive effects. This leads to one of two possibilities:

1. They consider "white guilt" to be a positive thing; or,
2. They consider "white guilt" to be an unavoidable consequence of education but it is balanced by fighting stereotypes.

Either way, further explanation of this in the press release would be very helpful.

White Children More Positive Toward Blacks
After Learning About Racism, Study Shows
The University of Texas at Austin

AUSTIN, Texas -- Challenging the idea that racism education could be harmful to students, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin found the results of learning about historical racism are primarily positive. The study appears in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development.

Psychologists Rebecca Bigler and Julie Milligan Hughes found white children who received history lessons about discrimination against famous African Americans had significantly more positive attitudes toward African Americans than those who received lessons with no mention of racism. African-American children who learned about racism did not differ in their racial attitudes from those who heard lessons that omitted the racism information, the study showed.

"There is a considerable debate about when and how children should be taught about racism," says Bigler, director of the university's Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab. "But little research has examined elementary-school-aged children's cognitive and emotional reactions to such lessons."