The Sociology of Race and Whiteness Studies: Intersections and Opportunities

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 17. White Perceptions of Race/Ethnicity and Migration

Abstract

This paper examines and enters into conversation research in the fields of the sociology of race and whiteness studies, contextualizing the sources included within the larger scholarly conversations of which they are a part. It includes a focus on white racial domination: how white Americans participate in, gain from, and relate to structurally based racial domination of people of color; how racial domination interacts intersectionally with other forms of domination based on gender, sexuality, social class, ability, and nationality; how these forms of domination are legally and extralegally supported; and the material consequences of these intersecting forms of domination for people of color and marginalized whites.
The paper also focuses on white supremacy: how definitions, experiences, and identities of/regarding whiteness have changed over time in response to sociopolitical events and the shifting needs of “whites”: to maintain racial dominance, to maintain or achieve economic superiority or greater economic standing, to protect private and national interests, to maintain or achieve an affective sense of greater worth via a privileged racial identity, and to avoid maltreatment and discrimination. In addition, it examines the future of whiteness: the directions in which these definitions, experiences, identities, and material outcomes of whiteness may shift in the future in response to impending sociopolitical events, including demographic changes, and the uneven and uncertain degradation of some of the structures upholding white domination. Lastly, it also examines critical race theory and how sociologists employing critical race theory explain and theorize these problems and concepts.

Author

• Adam Safer, State University of New York-Stony Brook