ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the experiences and stories of white people from a small farming community in northern Wisconsin. It examines how white people learn to be 'white' and reveals how white racial identity is dependent on people of color—even in situations where white people have little or no contact with racial others. The chapter sketches an account of the social production of white racial identity with the help of two scholars who explore just how important racial others have been for the meaning- and self-making of white people throughout US history. It then focuses on the words and stories of Frank, Robert, William, and Stan in order to deepen and complicate this account and to learn what these men might teach about whiteness and white racial identity. People of color, imagined and real, helped these men understand themselves and their powers—how smart they were, how good, how tough.