Little White Lies: Racialization and the White/Black Divide

Abstract

This article emphasizes the importance of considering the history, context and epistemological bases of the use of race and racial categories in North America. Using this contextual grounding, I propose that racial categories are born of racism and not the reverse. I include some salient personal examples of the effects of the construct Whiteness in my own life experience. They are, at the same time, personal, political and cultural. Finally, some suggestions are offered for dealing with the issue of Whiteness, in particular, in feminist therapy, which seeks to uncover power differentials and the personal and political, each embedded in the other.

KEYWORDS:

• racialization
• racism
• Whiteness
• Blackness
• White Privilege

Notes

To avoid linguistic awkwardness, I will refer to the United States as American and its residents as Americans in various places. The reader should be aware that this reference is a product and preference of the American indeterminate observer and is being used in order not to introduce confusion into the narrative. Note that all of Latin America, as well as Canada, are also American. In most of Latin America, we are known as North America and are considered imperious when naming ourselves Americans.