Eventually, we here at Interracial Voice are going to have to address the
issue of "whiteness". This is something that A.D. Powell has been trying to
do for some time and much of what she has been saying has fallen on deaf
ears. Let me be specific (and this is A.D.'s initiative -- I take no credit
for formulating this at all): unless "whites" are made to feel part of the
"racial" spectrum instead of some group which has "purity of ancestry" our
movement is incomplete. What do I mean by this? What I mean is that it should
be possible for a person to be labeled as "white" and admit to African
ancestry (or any ancestry). Thus that person would be connected to others
perhaps darker than himself and he would not be representative of some "pure
breed" of person.
There are several dimensions of being "white" in the United States (most of
them not very pleasant):
(a) Whiteness as a "union card": Whites are able to eyeball themselves and
otherwise feel each other out as to whether or not they are white -- and
then interact with each other as "normal" and not part of some minority
group. Presumably, "whites" encountering "non-whites" have the option of
either choosing words and actions carefully or acting in a racist manner.
(b) Whiteness as a mark of privilege: Identification as being "white" bonds
one into a dominant power group. This particular item is a fundamental basis
of the opposition shown by the NAACP, La Raza and other advocacy groups to
multiracial initiatives.
(c) Whiteness and rejection: Very few accounts which talk about "whites" and
other groups fail to highlight "white" lack of social acceptance of persons
who are not.
Personally, I would be reluctant to use the term "white" as anything other
than description of one's appearance. For example, a Norwegian girl I once
taught in Minnesota was a very attractive white girl. On the other hand, I
also once had a Sicilian roommate in grad school who was olive-skinned. I
would prefer for neither of these individuals to be in some "racial" combat
group of privilege and rejection hellbent of screwing me as a brown-skinned
Dominican at every opportunity.
But most Americans look at "whiteness" not as a description, but as a
prescription for power and privilege. That is why the term is still used the
way it is. It certainly isn't culture-based, because there are so many
cultural things that the term "white" doesn't have anything to do with:
(1) There is no country called "white". I lived as a child in Germany for
seven years after WWII. As most of us know, the Germans had some problems
related to bigotry in WWII. Nevertheless, the Germans called their country
"Deutschland", not "white".
(2) There is no language called "white". For that matter, there is no
language called "black".
(3) There is no religion called "white".
(4) Among other cultural artifacts, like child-rearing, diet,
work-organization, strategy of adaptation, educational systems, etc, I
haven't found these attributed to an entity called "white".
This is one editorial column. There is no way I can even begin to do more
than scratch the surface with respect to addressing just what the term
"white" has meant and still means in the U.S. social landscape. I do know
that, as A.D. has said, "if we do not address the issue of "whites" in the
multiracial movement [and not just some tolerant do-gooders on the
sidelines], we are building on sand".
William Javier Nelson, Ph.D.
A thoughtful reader will notice very little input from persons who have
labeled themselves as "white" and then have gone on to disagree with most of
our initiatives. On the other hand, posts from persons self-identifying as
"black" have, frequently, called into question the goals of the multiracial
movement (for those who don't know exactly what those goals are, for
starters, check out Maria Root's Bill of Rights for Multiracial People). This
should by no means be a barometer of "race" relations in the United States.
Also of interest by William Javier Nelson:
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