ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the shifting in the sociospatial regions of racial performances, especially the everyday reality of often unreliable boundaries between private and public regions. It examines racial events where and when white protagonists and other participants are aware of these social boundary shifts. The chapter looks at racial events when and where whites forget they are not actually in the private all-white region. In his dramaturgical analysis, Goffman notes the times when separation of the frontstage from the backstage breaks down and an outsider somehow becomes obvious in the backstage. In some settings, whites intentionally manipulate the shift from a backstage to a frontstage, or vice versa. In these situations, the white actors are not completely caught off guard as they, often quickly, change their performances for the new social context.
