Why is Time Always Right for White and Wrong for Us? Temporal Inequalities and Youth

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Race/Ethnicity, Schools, and Youth

Abstract

Independently, the study of whiteness and the study of time are important interventions in sociology. A solid foundation for any empirical investigation of the relationship between whiteness and the racialized temporalities of youth of color, however, has yet to be set. Drawing on data from thirty in-person interviews and ethnographic methods, this research explores how youth of color interpret time in relation to whiteness and the experiences of white youth. The data for this research is based on over one year of fieldwork at Run-a-Way – a multi-service center for youth. Results show that youth of color view white youth as having more time to take advantage of educational and employment opportunities. As a result of the perceived temporal advantage held by their white counterparts, youth of color expressed feelings of temporal inequality and disparate life chances. Forced to work twice as hard to be half as good, youth saw their time horizons as compressed. I show how youth of color not only lose time through physical, psychic, emotional labor required to process racialization and racism, but also illustrate the various structural mechanisms that steal their time. In spite of the temporal inequalities between them and their white counterparts, youth at Run-a-Way discovered ways to invert the terms of temporality to ensure that their culture was always most relevant and “up to date.” While whiteness is linked to modernity and that which is future oriented, youth of color viewed their white counterparts as behind time, lame, or just plain “wack” (uncool).

Author

• Rahsaan Mahadeo, University of Minnesota