Whiteness

“Whiteness”

Whiteness has always been a key identity in the United States. The history of whiteness and white privilege could have begun by the time slavery ended. It started when blacks began to move north and began demanding better treatment and started competition for jobs. Whites had to develope a common white identity to resist the competition from the black population. Through out the years and migration many people today have added more ethnicities to the white privilege status. It does not matter what ones ethnicity is like Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish but if you look white than you are white. Even though there is difference between the groups they all share common perspectives and goals. To reach these goals they have to stick together as a group. A technique used to deny whiteness and racism is a process called “Color Blindness”, which is the denial of racial differences, is used to deny the reality of racial inequality. Over the years of civil rights another identity begins to grow which are race privileges. A less recognized set of privileges due to the lack of time the privileges have developed. Other races besides white have gain a lot of privileges in America due to the history of racism which allows races today to unite to better themselves over whites. This paper will discuss some of the privileges that whites express through whiteness and their use of colorblindness, and also the new privileges that other races are beginning to receive which in the long run could overcome white privileges.

Whiteness is certainly still used today, but the process of colorblindness has popularized due to the discrimination laws and people hiding their true feelings. Whites deny racism by first giving denial to racial differences. The denial of racial differences begins with the ability of whites’ maintaining a normal status. This is explained by the Brown’s Daily Herald News paper articled called “Definition of 'whiteness' evolved over time, Brown U....