Whiteness?

Question

We have to do a huge research paper for AP United States History, and I was thinking about doing mine on how whiteness affects our thinking. Like, how immigrants associate whiteness with opportunity and inclusion. And the question: What exactly IS white?

The thing is, I don't know if I could write a 15-page research paper on this topic. I searched google to help find some reputable sources about whiteness and the questions above, but I couldn't find much. If any of you can help me find some sources, that would be spectacular. (Even books or magazine/newspaper articles that you have read.) Thanks.

Answer 1

To get 15 pages you have to make your topic very narrow. You should choose a single ethnic/racial group and focus in on the effects the dominant culture had on them and they're identity -- concept of beauty, social behavior, abandonment of traditions.



To focus on white guilt you will have to examine abolition movements, misinterpretation of affirmative action.

Answer 2

This field of research is known as "critical white studies".



The definition of whiteness has indeed changed throughout US history, especially during the first waves of Eastern European and Irish immigration. At this point (starting in the late 1800s), the words 'ethnicity' and 'race' had nearly identical meanings. There were the Slav, Nordic, and Hebrew races and, of course, the 'black' Irish. Only the Anglo-Saxons and Nordics were considered to be white. Gradually, a transformation occurred through which the Eastern Europeans distanced themselves from blacks, Latinos, Asians, and American Indians, and were able to incorporate themselves into the privileges of whiteness. More recently, some Asians have been able to cross the line into "honorary whiteness".



Some books you could look at:

Working Towards Whiteness

How the Irish Became White

The Wages of Whiteness

Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites



If you look up these books, then search for the authors names, you can often find articles that give summaries of the books' central messages. Good luck.

Answer 3

You should seek your explanation of whiteness in where ever you can find a dominant culture that does not understand or even recognise its self.



You could find elements of it in the feminist response to male domination, you could find it in Marxist critiques on the bourgeois.



You should not expect to find a self critique by the powerful, it will never happen. "White is, whatever white defines black is not".



It is time and culture specific, for example a Spanish person in Spain is white (no matter how dark) but a Spanish (Latino) person in America is not (no matter how light). Yet a Spanish person in America in The 17th century would have been classed as white (no matter how dark). White writes its own rules its all about supremacy



I am white by the way, or am I now that i have said all that ?



Try looking up Banton and/or Miles



Banton M 1998 racial theories 2nd ed. Cambridge; Cambridge university



Miles R 1989 Racism London: Routledge



Back L and Solomos J (eds). Theories of Race and racism. 2001 London: Routledge



Good luck :-)



Edit



Have a look at this http://www.nathanielturner.com/factofblackness.htm its a wonderfull piece from a man who considered the aspects of colour very deeply. (not easy but makes you go " wow" when you get even a little of it)

Answer 4

Or to have one main topic but to spread easier through 15 pages, I'd take a few paragraphs to focus on Hispanics and general issues for exceptance for them, then Indians, Asians, Blacks... that way you get to counteract with each culture and each have their own individual challenges... back it up with books on sociology... I'd also look up published journals...and illnesses or phobias (something to that effect) that could derive from it in some psychology books or publications...

Answer 5

I heard about a recent book, I think the title of subtitle was "how the jews became white" It's a historical look at how a marginalized group became accepted into the mainstream.