Whiteness: An IntroductionWhat is whiteness? Why is it worth using as a tool in the social sciences? Making sociological sense of the idea of whiteness, this book skilfully argues how this concept can help us understand contemporary societies. If one of sociology's objectives is to make the familiar unfamiliar in order to gain heightened understanding, then whiteness offers a perfect opportunity to do so. Leaning firstly on the North American corpus, this key book critically engages with writings on the formation of white identities in Britain, Ireland and the Americas, using multidisciplinary sources. Empirical work done in the UK, including the author's own, is developed in order to suggest how whiteness functions in Britain. Bringing an emphasis on empirical work to a heavily theorized area, this important text synthesizes and reviews existing work, incorporates multidisciplinary sources of interest to those outside the sociology sphere, and features concise chapters which will engage undergraduates. Garner deftly argues that whiteness is a multifaceted, contingent and fluid identity, and that it must be incorporated into any contemporary understandings of racism as a system of power relationships in both its local and global forms. |
From inside the book
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... construct themselvesas raceless individuals,unfettered by the kinds ofcollective identifications that they viewother people as having. The distinctionbetween white/individual and nonwhite/communal represents a way of understanding the ...
... constructed racialised communities whichit then placed in antagonistic relationships. A number ofstudies of minorities began to constitute the corpus.It was notuntil thelate 1970s thata seriousattempt was made to theorise ...
... constructed historically asan exploitativesetof power relations – and onlyin relationto Others– it may appeartobe a homogenous group recognised ashaving biological and culturallinks across time andspace. The 'white race' perse,asa ...
... constructed as taking unfair advantage of loopholes, and the shacklesbinding white people. Pitfall 4: 'Recentring' One problem that emerges is that the focus of research can shift to the details of whiteidentities. I arguethat the ...
... constructed:the ruleofindividual responsibility.This means, you get whatyoudeserve,both for hard work andforidleness. Yet, obviously ifyouarea Hispanic earning US$90k and not getting loans thatare offered to white people earning US$38k ...