Hegemonic whiteness: Creating an initial measure and comparing across racial-ethnic groups

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Ten: Racialized Ideologies, Epistemologies, and Social Discourses

Abstract

Recent research has called for studies that expand the scientific study of racism to more accurately conceptualize and measure how it operates in the modern era. Central to this call is the demand for additional work that explores white normativity. Hegemonic whiteness, a framework that explores the dominant ideologies and cultural practices that are associated with white normativity, is foundational in illuminating how racism and white supremacy function in the US. The goals of the research outlined in this paper is twofold. First, it proposes various concrete measures of hegemonic whiteness that capture the different components of hegemonic whiteness that have been theorized in previous research, including racial attitudes, racial emotions, and cultural practices and preferences. Second, it explores whether these components differ by race-ethnicity across a large nationally representative sample of white, Black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic individuals in the US. Findings indicate that race-ethnicity influences the extent to which individuals subscribe to various components of hegemonic whiteness. Whites score highest on ideologies most aligned with hegemonic whiteness (racial resentment, white guilt avoidance). Black and Hispanic respondents show stronger ethnic identity and egalitarianism, suggesting alternative ideological orientations that may counterbalance hegemonic whiteness. Some constructs (American identity, empathy) show minimal racial variation, indicating that hegemonic cultural beliefs are broadly internalized across groups rather than confined to White respondents.

Author

• Paula K. Miller, Ohio University