ON THE NATURE OF WHITENESS AND THE ONTOLOGY OF RACE Toward a Dialectical Materialist Analysis

THE CURRENT PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSIONS (in many instances what are more precisely debates) over whiteness signal not only the importance of whiteness as a philosophical problem but, more important, the everpressing reality of race. The ontological force of race is shaping the character of social institutions, relations, and practices in this country. Hence, such philosophical discussions about the nature of whiteness cannot be removed from broader debates about race. The nature of whiteness is inexorably and dialectically connected to the ontology of race. For example, whether one deems race to be of real substance or assumes that it is in some manner a kind of fiction, thus lacking ontological status, ultimately influences how one philosophically apprehends and theorizes whiteness.