White Racial Confusion and the Problems of the Colorblind: A Typology Drawn from Ethnographic Data

• In Event: 326 - Regular Session. National Perspectives on Racism and Anti-Racism

Abstract

I discuss what I see as the two major points of intellectual convergence around the notions of white privilege and colorblindness. I elaborate on the intellectual and pedagogical utility of these concepts, acknowledging the virtues of their parsimonious and compelling explanations for the persistence and deepening of racial inequality in a post-discrimination society. I then turn to the limitations of these concepts as currently formulated, noting both their over-general nature and the lack of clear empirical support for the validity of the concepts. I conclude that what is needed is a rigorous theoretical framework for generating more accurate hypotheses and more accurate empirical research.
I make the modest proposal that boundary theory can serve as a model theoretical framework for a new generation of whiteness studies. I briefly explain the elements of this approach and I highlight recent research on whiteness that deploys boundary theory to press claims about the complex and contested nature of whiteness at different historical moments and in different national contexts.
In a second section of the paper, I draw on boundary theory to address current cultural and political dynamics among whites in the US. As a first step, I develop a hypothetical, highly simplified typology of whites, drawing on two variables to create four “ideal types” of whites (Weber 1978). I generalize about each of these four types, paying close attention to the lines of conflict and cooperation, both real and potential, that serve as sources of cohesion and contradiction among whites.

Author

• Matt Wray, Temple University