It is important to think about the different ways in which white racial identity manifests itself across the broad, eclectic spectrum of those considered (by themselves and by others) “white.” By categorizing different understandings and experiences of whiteness, we can not only gain a deeper appreciation of racial self-awareness but also make linkages between forms of identity and social and political behavior. It is easy to be baffled by sudden acts of racial violence or by white assertions of superiority, especially as they coexist with white anti-racist activism and a desire to “save” poor blacks and Latinos/as from their difficult circumstances. What leads people to mobilize their racial identities in such different ways? Why aren’t all white people alike?
There are a range of answers to these questions. Social class, geography, social context, and degree of contact with non-whites all influence white racial identity. It is especially important to think about the ways in which the contexts and the statuses of others affect whiteness, as these ways demonstrate that whiteness is not a “natural, unchangeable phenomenon” (Alcoff 2015: 74). Contexts such as neighborhood choice not only are influenced by white identity but also shape it (Alcoff 2015). For example, whites who live in majority non-white neighborhoods or work in majority non-white settings will be routinely reminded of their whiteness, as it makes them stand in opposition to those with whom they frequently interact. In such settings, interactions between whites and non-whites can have a multilayered quality, shaped by class and spatial factors as they intersect with abstract understandings of race (Hartigan 1997). The same would be true of whites married to non-whites. White racial awareness will most likely be much greater among them than among the many whites who work, attend school and live in primarily white settings. Vasquez (2014) refers to this awareness as “racial cognizance,” a perspective that not only entails an awareness of white identity but also is explicitly aware of racial inequality. In the case of whites married to Latinos/as, the awareness of whiteness is generated not only by the continual contrasting racial classifications of those in one’s immediate environment, but also by the incidence of witnessing instances of discrimination against family members (Vasquez 2014).
Whiteness manifests itself differently in different regions of the country, racial identity often being experienced differently in the South and in the Southwest, for example. In addition, rural whites can have a different understanding of what it means to be white—different, that is, from that of urban or suburban dwellers. In part, this is a result of exposure to non-whites; many rural areas, especially those outside the South, tend to be racially isolated. Even though suburbs can be just as isolated, many residents commute to cities that have larger, often visible non-white populations. Regionally, the non-white groups that predominate can be quite different; thus whites might be counterpoised to American Indians in the Plains states, to Latinos/as in the Southwest and in the West, to Asians in the West, and to blacks in the South, Northeast, and Midwest. Owing to the association that many whites make between Latinos/as and Asians and immigration status and that prompts them to “over-include” devalued groups within the immigrant category (Kosic and Phalet 2006), whites in the West and Southwest who interact with large Asian and Latino/a populations there might attach a nativist or nationalist meaning to whiteness. Whites in the South have a very long history of living with a rigid racial dichotomy between whites and blacks that has structured every aspect of daily life. It is reasonable to expect vestiges of this rigid dichotomy to set strong boundaries around whiteness today.
Important contextual effects that vary across cities—such as demographics, segregation, or inequality—can also vary across neighborhoods within a single city. Doering’s (2015) study of “positive loiterers”—whites who congregate in public in order to deter people from criminal activity—shows that whites located in multiracial contexts have a visibility to their whiteness that others—whites in homogenous neighborhoods, or in less public settings—do not. The ways in which these whites navigate their identities varies. One group anticipated racial challenges and engaged with critics, while another isolated itself from blacks in the neighborhood and dismissed those who confronted it. These cases point to the importance of context in shaping expressions of whiteness (Doering 2015).
Although context is certainly important in shaping white identities, the reach of whiteness transcends the particular and is both the cause and the consequence of the larger structural forces that shape identities. While it might seem unusual to assert that an identity can change a structural force, political and economic conditions can be reinforced, or even transformed, by the patterned behaviors of whites as they enact their identities. For example, white superiority can facilitate the passage of legislation that results in the criminalization or disenfranchisement of non-whites. This legislation, in turn, can solidify, or even generate, whites’ feelings of moral superiority over other racial groups. So, too, can broader patterns of residential segregation influence whiteness. For example, racial segregation can mitigate against positive attitudes to immigration among whites (Rocha and Espino 2009). Similarly, racially homogenous neighborhoods can undergird a sense of having rights to certain areas, which are then thought to exist primarily for whites. These perceived rights can prompt white residents to call the police on a black pedestrian in “their” neighborhood. The white identities that emerge from these patterns of segregation and their corresponding behaviors, in turn, reify racialized neighborhood boundaries and have a cascading effect on the segregation of other institutions such as schools.
Colorblind identities such as those generated by racially homogenous neighborhoods are reflected in whites’ inability to see their own race as an important factor in their lives. Race is instead thought to be a characteristic that non-whites have; whites simply do not think of themselves as having a race at all. One of the reasons why whiteness often goes unremarked is the widely held assumption that “white” is the norm—the default racial category in America. This reality is generated by a long history of white racial dominance, in which whites have controlled institutions, shaped the culture, and enforced their power through a variety of mechanisms. As a result, they have been in a position to defend their rights and power by drawing boundaries around their group, such that white became the norm and all other groups fell outside of the norm. The invisibility of whiteness is such that the privilege it involves is often hidden from view—it seems like the natural order of things. This invisibility of whiteness is especially common among whites in racially homogenous settings: when white is the norm and no stimulus is activating racial identity, one’s own race is seen as a non-factor. Given the high degree of residential and educational segregation in the United States, this experience of whiteness is, indeed, the “norm.”
As discussed earlier, privilege refers to the often unseen benefits of occupying a structurally rewarded position in society such as being white, or male, or heterosexual. The benefits of privilege are many, ranging from a greater likelihood of earning extra income to a greater likelihood of getting away with shoplifting than those without privilege. The very category of “white” is based on the existence of privilege in relation to people of color. The boundaries of whiteness have reflected a history of groups striving for inclusion in the category of “white” and the corresponding high status and resources that being white bestows (Roediger 1991). To be white is to have the opportunity to be included in the civic, political and economic life of the nation. White is the default category against which other racial and ethnic groups are measured. Yet few of those within this category see their racial experience as anything but the norm; it is the others whom they regard as different.
Among the first to observe this power of whiteness in America was the sociologist W. E. B. DuBois. In The Souls of White Folk, DuBois noted