ABSTRACT
Since Marx's seminal, if scattered and brief, work on ideology, a fundamental aspect of social critique has been the recognition that dominant social groups maintain their power, not only through physical violence, but through the normalization of what, culturally, is specifically theirs. The primary means through which this invisibility comes about, at least in Euro-American contexts, is Whiteness' operation as a "default" identification. In the field of representation, this default ensures that people/characters who are not racially specified, may safely be assumed to be White. The primary way of challenging White hegemony in the world of representation involves denying its claim to universality. White characters' amusement with or interest in questions of language appear alongside expressions of fear or anger at racial/cultural difference. Toni Morrison goes further, however, suggesting that the instrumental use of Black characters indicates a White interest in the maintenance of racial domination.
