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Critical Whiteness Literature Review

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At times whiteness can hold sentiments of privilege or a desirable social status. Other times, it can position itself as source of victimhood or a “tenuous situational identity” (Twine & Gallagher, 2008, p.7). The study of “whiteness” was birthed in the early 1990s from critical race theory (CRT) in the United States of America (Delgado &Stefancic, 2001). CRC was built on two movements, critical legal studies and radical feminism (Delgado &Stefancic, 2001). The literature used for this study, draws on CRC and its relation to feminist insights which aim to explore the “relationship between power and the construction of social roles...and the largely invisible collection of patterns that make up types of domination” (Delgado &Stefancic, 2001, p.6). Studies on race and racism had predominately centred its attention on those constructed on the margins as “black” (Steyn, 2001). Critical Whiteness studies however, distinguished itself as a field to explore “the …show more content…

White South African masculinities appear to be the biggest carriers of these complexities. Research and literature therefore need to expand on alternative “whiteness” in South Africa and its intersection with masculinity (Kelly, 2008). The narrative of whiteness in South Africa holds particularities which separates itself from other white identities elsewhere. Steyn (2001) notes that South African whiteness has always been divided by “two major groups of European stock”(p.26) where each had viewed the other us “lower” than the other, resulting in “internal colonization within the white group” (p.26). The beginning of the 19th century created this division through British acquisition of the Cape. From the start, this acquisition produced “an incipient tension” (p.194) between Afrikaners and the British authority. (Giliomee,

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The film, White Like Me is based on the works of Tim Wise, an American anti-racism activist and writer. The documentary explores racism in the United States through the concepts of white privileged and racial identity by Wise’s own experiences. He starts off by saying that the United States has overcome a lot of issues involving race from slavery to electing an African-American as president, but he disproves that theory by stating that racial inequality and racial bias still exists. Wise emphasizes that when the issues are ignored not only does injustice continues for the people of color but also damage is done to white people as well. Racism is seen to only impact the underprivileged and not the dominate group, but for every racist act against

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In the McIntosh article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” my overview of this article for the reading assignment is that “white privilege,” as McIntosh states, is “an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious.” This revelation came as she was writing an observation article on white male privilege in America. Her reviews in this area began in her discoveries of men’s unwillingness to recognize their over-advantage status, however they would concede the impediment condition of women. These denials protected male privilege from being acknowledged, diminished, or abridged. Her findings concerning unattended white privilege may be key to bigotry.

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From 1948-1994, apartheid raged across South Africa. The people of South Africa were split into four different social groups based on race. The top of the social hierarchy at the time were the white South Africans. They held control from the government and kept the other groups in a constant state of oppression. These other groups included Indian people, “colored” people, and black people.

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Racialized critical rhetorical theorizing is the way the public and legal notions of race influence the decisions that are made for our society that changes outcomes or actions based on our society’s views. Throughout this essay there is a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of racial studies, and the contributions of legal race theorists that have studied to understand the arguments of racialized critical rhetorical theorizing. When we focus on this subject, there is also an emphasis placed on positive reconstruction and race consciousness. Article Discussion This essay discusses and explores a specific rhetoric theory in which the issue of race is analyzed.

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Fahad Albrahim Response 1: Review/Summary: “Whiteness as property” is an article written by Cheryl Harris, in which she addresses the subject of racial identity and property in the United States. Throughout the article, professor Harris attempts to explain how the concept of whiteness was initiated to become a form of racial identity, which evolved into a property widely protected in American law (page 1713). Harris tackles a number of facts that describe the roots of whiteness as property in American history at the expense of minorities such as Black and American natives (page 1709). Additionally, Harris describes how whiteness as property evolved to become seen as a racial privilege in which the whites gained more benefits, whether

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White Privilege: Essay 1 White privilege is a systemic issue that has roots in our history as far back as the creators of our country. Searching back, we see our norms and values created into habits that have been woven into how we view and act around specific groups such as African Americans. This essay is going to explain how the average Caucasian individual experiences white privilege on a day to day basis and the solutions to insure that white privilege will stop and true equality can be handed out. This paper views the latter issues through symbolic interactionism, with supporting sub theories such as; labeling theory, looking glass self, and selective perception.

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When someone hears the term “White Privilege”, immediately one would assume that it denotes a meaning that a specific race has ‘privilege’, or special treatment, that other races might not receive. However, the term “White Privilege” goes beyond what the eyes see, like Peggy McIntosh, an anti-racism activist, suggests, it is “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.” In other words, McIntosh is saying “White Privilege” is not entirely a status, special treatment, nor a certain standing in a social structure, but is instead, in its most inherent and intrinsic definition, a subtle but yet powerful phenomenon that subjugate us as social creatures to conform to its power of giving certain races advantages that are oblivious to our own knowledge.

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Intersectional analysis still matter because race still matters in this generation. Intersectional analysis is a theory of discrimination with an individual identity, race, sex, age, and other characteristics. I personally think that not only women face intersectionality but men do as well. In this essay, I will argue that bell hooks’ main argument is how white people do not know what people of colour are going through and how “whiteness” has more privileges then the blacks. hooks approach is intersectional because people of colour are being treated as slaves to the “white” just because of their race and at times their gender.

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Critical Whiteness Studies responds to the invisible and normative nature of whiteness in predominantly white societies, criticizing racial and ethnic attribution of non-white subjects who have to grapple with their deviation from the set norm, and opening the discussion on white privilege that results from being the unmarked norm (Kerner: 278). As Conway and Steyn elaborate, Critical Whiteness Studies aims to “redirect[...] the scholarly gaze from the margins to the centre” (283) and, more specifically, to interrogat[e][...] the centre of power and privilege from which racialization emanates but which operates more or less invisibly as it constructs itself as both the norm and ideal of what it means to be human. (ibid.) Thus, Critical Whiteness

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At the heart of whiteness studies is the invisibility of whiteness and white privilege (Ahmed, 2004). Whiteness is thought of as the hidden criterion to which every other race is measured against. Through the lens of whiteness, the “other” is seen as deviant (Ahmed, 2004). The invisibility of whiteness, however, is only from the perspective of those who are white (Matthews, 2012). To people who are not white, it is pervasive and blatant.

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The black South Africans see through the incident as a resentful event which “will be another piece of evidence in their truth about the country.” (Gordimer, 1992, p.105).   The black South Africans have been offended with unjustified segregation and

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Decolonization a process of undoing the benefits of colonialism leads to Africanization a process through which the liberalized Africans becomes conscious to what it means to be a Black person. In South African context, these two process results in the South African society being interpreted through the lens of Marxist political economy, that is mostly concerned with the analysis of the class dynamics of homeland independence and the opportunities that this process fostered for political control and capital accumulation by new and existing elites (Letsekha,2013). The process of decolonization and Africanization also helps in the development of such theories as empowerment theory, class conflict theory and black consciousness in that these theories speaks to a common theme of the complete freedom of black people from white oppression. The different ways through which these theories contribute to decolonization and Africanization are to be further explored in detail in the essay that

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1174 Words | 5 Pages

In the modern world we are not only surrounded by the culture of our own people but also that of those who live amongst us be they from a different region of our own country or from a foreign shore. Culture surrounds us constantly and through its diversity makes life interesting. Cultural appropriation is where by one borrows something from another culture and places them into a different setting and by adding new elements to it gives it a new meaning. Many artists use cultural appropriation to convey messages in their work, an example of this is Kendell Geers. Kendell Geers uses cultural appropriation throughout his artworks relating to South African culture.

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Kareen Harboyan English 1C Professor Supekar March 15, 2018 Word Count: Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens Crenshaw's Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color expands on the multifaceted struggles of women of color and the generalizations ingrained in society that limit women of color and keep them in a box. In this text, Crenshaw builds on the concept of intersectionality which proposes that social categorizations such as gender and race are intertwined and have great influence on one another.

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Context: Legislation: In 1948, the all white National Party gained control of the South African government and immediately enacted a system of racial oppression called apartheid [1]. This system, building upon existing discriminatory laws, ensured economic, political, and social dominance for whites. It gained a foothold as laws such as the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act worked to benefit whites while hurting people of color[1].

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