Pavel Shlossberg
This course examines the social construction of race through an exploration of white identity, both theoretically and empirically. Topics include the historical genesis of white identity; its intersection with political movements and organizations; the relation of whiteness to race, ethnicity, class, gender and nation; representations of whiteness in popular culture; the sociological mechanisms by which it is reproduced, negotiated, and contested.
Required Books
1. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
2. Paula S. Rothenberg, White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism
Schedule
Topic 1: Introduction
Topic 2: Whiteness: the Power of Normative Invisibility
Paula S. Rothenberg, “Introduction,” part 1, White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism
Topic 3: Whiteness as Structural Privilege
Paula S. Rothenberg, “Introduction,” part 2.4, White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism
Tim Wise, chapters 1-2, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White
Topic 4: Race: The Floating Signifier
Stuart Hall, “Race, the Floating Signifier”
Topic 5: Whiteness, Racial Formation, and the Politics of Privilege
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, “Racial Formation,” and “Race and Reaction,” Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s
Topic 6: Denial, “Reverse Racism,” and Other Ideologies of Whiteness
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, chapters 2-4, Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
Topic 7: Whiteness, Race, and the Media
Robert Entman and David Rojecki, chapters 4-7, Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America
Sut Jhally and Justin M. Lewis, chapters 1, 5-6, 8, Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream
Topic 8: Whiteness as Cultural Capital
Steve Garner, chapter 3, Whiteness: an Introduction
Dalton Conley, selections, Honky
Topic 9: White Privilege and Class Inequality: How (Some) Whites Lose Too …
Martin Gilens, selections, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy
Topic 10: The Historical Contingency of Whiteness
Matthew Frye Jacobson, chapter 2, Whiteness of a Different Color
Topic 11: Whiteness and the Power of Resistance
Paula S. Rothenberg, “Introduction,” part 4, White Privilege: Essential Readings on the other Side of Racism
