Critical Race Theory

Race has been commonly referred to as a social construction. Being socially constructed means that the world and society itself has come up with a way to understand how the world functions in a language they understand. So how does our social world function in terms of Race? In order to understand Race, various theorists have come up with arguments and approaches. By looking at Whiteness Studies, a more recent view of race can be understood different from the common approaches seen in most literature. When comparing Whiteness studies to other critical race theorists, like Asante and his theory of Afrocentrism or Collins and colourblindness, there are both strengths and weaknesses to the argument that need to be addressed in order to understand …show more content…
Whiteness Studies underlines an important theoretical point regarding the character of race and ethnicity. Race or ethnicity is about establishing boundaries through acts of exclusion or acts of contrast and opposition (Seidman 2013, 232). This approach is distinctively different than other approaches. Historically when looking at race, people often focused particularly on people of colour, or more specifically Blacks in America. What this approach does is look at White also as a racial identity, and seeks to understand both the history of Whiteness as well as the social account of the approach (Seidman, 2013, 234). And though the focus is on Whites, it is structured not only the lives of Whites, but also non-whites (Seidman, 2013, 237). In order to do this Whiteness is looks at as an identity, as a cultural experience and as well as a system of power. By looking at two main theorists, Richard Dyer and David Roediger, we can grasp a more in depth look of the aims of Whiteness studies and the theories behind …show more content…
It has been assumed that there have always been people who are White and that this is the natural state of humanity, however this is not always the case (Seidman, 2013, 235). One of the leading theorists of Whiteness studies, David Roediger, noted that many of the immigrants who arrive in the United States in the early twentieth century from Europe, were in fact not thought of as White by Protestant Americans (Seidman, 2013, 235). He goes on to explain that there is variety in White and it was not looked at as a whole or a collective term. Historically, not all people with white skin were thought of or identified as being white. European immigrants were often seen the same way that Richard Dyer expressed people of colour as being seen, and that was as an “other”. Immigrants were often oppressed not only because they were not of British heritage, but also because they were not viewed as white. In order to be viewed as White and be respectable first-class American citizens, their European ethnicity had to be weakened (Seidman, 2013, 236). An example of this is seen in what Roediger expresses in Whiteness and Ethnicity. He comments that when Europeans, such as Irish or Polish people, came to America they sought to become White Americans (Seidman, 2013, 236). What this did was take away from their ethnicity and they no longer became recognized as Irish

Show More