ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of 'race' and the historical development of racism in England. It explores the particular regime of racial representation, Edward Said's analysis of Orientalism. 'Race' is a cultural and historical category, a way of making difference signify between people of a variety of skin tones. Part of the power of whiteness is that it seems to exist outside categories of 'race' and ethnicity. These categories appear to apply only to non-white people; whiteness seems to exist as a human norm from which races and ethnicities are a deviation. To understand the normative power of whiteness people have to forget about its biology and think about it as a cultural construct; that is, something that is presented as 'natural', 'normal' and 'universal'. The chapter concludes with a section on 'whiteness' and a discussion of cultural studies and anti-racism.
