Bodies out of place: Affective encounters with whiteness

This essay foregrounds the role of affect in felt experiences of whiteness by illustrating two accounts, one that took place on 25th May 2020 between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper in Central Park, and an encounter from the authors previous study on Black educators’ experiences of working in white spaces. In doing so, this essay is an affective attunement to the ways that felt intensities inform our experience of power relations and ultimately constrain the capacities of bodies to act.     

Whiteness and Disability: Double Marginalization

Whiteness involves a set of privileges that are lost or removed when a person becomes, or is perceived to be, disabled. For European American women, disability impacts femininity, the part of identity that differentiates them from European American men who hold maximal power and privilege in U.S. society. Disability represents a health issue, a barrier to social participation, and vulnerability to individual and societal abuse. Development of a healthy disability identity allows European American women to negotiate the multicultural situation of being White, women, and disabled.     

Little White Lies: Racialization and the White/Black Divide

This article emphasizes the importance of considering the history, context and epistemological bases of the use of race and racial categories in North America. Using this contextual grounding, I propose that racial categories are born of racism and not the reverse. I include some salient personal examples of the effects of the construct Whiteness in my own life experience. They are, at the same time, personal, political and cultural. Finally, some suggestions are offered for dealing with the issue of Whiteness, in particular, in feminist therapy, which seeks to uncover power differentials and the personal and political, each embedded in the other.     

The Butterfly Dilemma: Asian Women,Whiteness, and Heterosexual Relationships

Critical Whiteness theory explores Whiteness as a form of power and privilege that originated in Western countries and has been dispersed globally. Its form is particular to location and its interaction with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, and gender. Two ways it has operated historically is through making the norms of Whiteness universal and the marker of reason and rationality. This article examines Whiteness through two lenses, the colonial-era opera, Madame Butterfly, and three recent therapy case studies involving White American husbands and Asian immigrant wives. Although the women in these therapy cases have emigrated from different Asian countries and cultures, the treatment toward them suggests that colonial-era images and stereotypes of Asian women still resonate in contemporary White American culture and are impervious to national or cultural boundaries. A comparison of the opera’s themes with those of the therapy cases suggest how historical and social constructions of Whiteness continue to promote inequality in heterosexual relationships comprised of White American males and Asian females. Feminist, multicultural analyses of the therapy cases are provided to highlight more egalitarian treatment of the women in therapy, in their families, and in the broader society. The intersectionality of gender with ethnicity and culture is discussed for these Asian women who experience the homogenization of their identities in spite of having immigrated to the U.S. from distinct cultures.     

Conditions for dialogue and illuminating inequality in multicultural societies

In a recent article, Nesbitt‐Larking (2007) postulated the notion of ‘deep multiculturalism’, dependent, at least in part, on dialogue and on ‘host’ societies questioning their core values. In this commentary I suggest that whilst such a proposal is indeed a worthy ideal, the social psychological processes underpinning how this can be achieved need to be adequately addressed if such a vision is to become a reality. Using Social Representation Theory, I hope to explicate the operation of power, ideologies and collective memory on the process of representation, and suggest that understanding this process may better enable one to manage the obstacles involved in a project of deep multiculturalism. Drawing on Whiteness studies, I suggest that for a host society to question their core values, certain unconsciously held values need first to be illuminated; however, in so doing, I postulate that caution is exercised in order that such exposure does not perpetuate racialising representations. Using the concepts of anchoring and objectification, I propose that highlighting the similarities and shared experiences of a society's members may be a more successful strategy for achieving deep multiculturalism, than focusing on diversity and difference. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the Impact of a Race‐Based Course on Counseling Students: A Quantitative Study

This study sought to determine changes in 121 White counseling students following their participation in an experiential, race‐based course taught in a group format. Pre‐ and postoutcomes were reported based on instruments that measured White racial identity development, White privilege, color blindness, and the costs of racism. Findings indicated significant changes according to the majority of measures, although with certain distinctions. Findings are discussed in light of the current literature. Este estudio trató de determinar los cambios en 121 estudiantes blancos de consejería después de su participación en un curso experiencial basado en la raza que se enseñó en formato de grupo. Se comunicaron los resultados previos y posteriores basándose en instrumentos que midieron el desarrollo de la identidad racial blanca, el privilegio blanco, la falta de percepción de color y los costos del racismo. Los hallazgos indicaron cambios significativos según la mayoría de mediciones, aunque con ciertas distinciones. Se discuten los hallazgos a la luz de las investigaciones actuales.     

Counting on Whiteness: Religion,race, ethnicity,and the politics of Jewish demography

American Jews have long been an anomaly for scholars concerned with understanding how they fit into extant social scientific or historical categories. Sometimes they seem best described as an ethnic group, other times as a religious one. This ambiguity has also vexed Jewish communal leaders whose desire to comprehend their communities has largely been underwritten by their intention to protect it. This intersection of sociological methods and schema and Jewish communal concerns has resulted in decisive omissions regarding how best to account for the racial and ethnic diversity of American Jews. An analysis of survey instruments used in 175 American Jewish population studies and community portraits conducted since 1970 reveals a focus on questions of religious practice and an avoidance of those about race and ethnicity, resulting in a “religio-racial formation” of American Jews as White. This approach to studying American Jewish life has marginalized or excluded non-White Jews while ensuring ongoing Jewish communal access to Whiteness without having to claim it explicitly.     

Expanding White Racial Identity Theory: A Qualitative Investigation of Whites Engaged in Antiracist Action

This article presents outcomes of a qualitative exploration of White racial identity. Ten participants whose characteristics were reflective of Helms's ( 1990 ) autonomy status defined their racial identities and related lifestyle choices. Findings are conceptualized within the framework of Helms's ( 1990 , 1995 ) theory of White racial identity development. Suggestions are intended to enhance White racial identity theory and provide empirical support for characteristics of Whites who are engaged in antiracist activities.     

Affective energies: Sensory bodies on the beach in Darwin,Australia

Emerging debates on anti-racism within white majority cultures centre emotion and affect to explore the visceral nature of racialised encounters that unfold in public spaces of the city. This paper builds on such understandings by conceptualising whiteness as a force that exerts affective pressures on bodies of colour who are hypervisible in public spaces. I show that these pressures have the potential to wound, numb and immobilise bodies affecting what they can do or what they can become. This paper argues, however, that affective energies from human and non-human sources are productive forces that are also sensed in public spaces such as the suburban beach. These energies entangle sensuous bodies with the richness of a more-than-human world and have the potential to offer new insights into exploring how racially differentiated bodies live with difference. The paper draws on ethnographic research conducted in Darwin, a tropical north Australian city at the centre of politicised public debates on asylum seeker policy, migrant integration and Indigenous wellbeing. My attention to affective pressures and affective energies contributes to understanding how bodies with complex histories and geographies of racialisation can inhabit a world of becoming.