Discourses of Contraction in the Spatialization of Whiteness

Abstract

Agricultural communities increasingly have become sites of struggle over identity, belonging and citizenship. While historically the relationship between race and space has been one of segregation and displacement, investigations of these sites of (im)migration reveal new discursive relationships and particular manifestations of whiteness. Adopting a spatial framework, this ethnographic study seeks to de-essentialize whiteneness through an exploration of discourses of contraction articulated by members of a farm community. Contraction refers to white residents’ representation of “Hispanicness” as spreading throughout (and threatening) “their” town, specifically commercial and educational spaces. The implications of contraction include the re-consolidation of white privilege as the “minority” group within a context of spatial integration.

Keywords:

• Whiteness
• discourse
• contraction
• space
• race

Notes

1. In the analysis section, I distinguish between white and “Hispanic” residents, choosing to utilize the language employed by both white and “Hispanic” Farmvilleites. The term “Hispanic” is admittedly problematic. For a more thorough discussion, see Hoops (2014).