Giving Voice to ‘Whiteness’? (De)Constructing ‘Race’

Abstract

I am deeply suspicious about the ways ‘race’ functions in contemporary U.S. culture. As this chapter’s epigraphs suggest, I believe that our racialized thinking and speaking, although perhaps unavoidable, lock us into destructive, soul-breaking patterns. ‘Race’ categories are built on a series of brutal, exclusionary practices originating in histories of oppression, manipulation, land theft, body theft, soul theft, physical and psychic murder, and other crimes against specific groups of people. These categories were motivated by economics and politics, by insecurity and greed—not by innate biological or divinely created differences. ‘Race’ has a poisonous history that continues infecting us today. Every time we automatically refer to ‘race’ or to specific ‘races’ we draw on and thus reinforce this violent history, as well as the ‘white’ supremacism buttressing the entire system.

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words—words that evoke structures of oppression, exploitation, and brute physical threat—can break souls.

Kwame Anthony Appiah¹

“Racing” is a practice of separating people out from the general population with the specific purpose of fortifying the dominance of the remaining majority. Thus, race is not a passive recognition of natural qualities, but rather the sum of intentional actions taken to stratify the population in order to maintain white privilege and non-white subordination.

john a. powell²

Regardless of what I might experience professionally or personally, I believe that race consciousness hinders, if not destroys, us all. We cannot liberate ourselves by using race.

Reginald Leamon Robinson³