ABSTRACT
There is a growing literature on what Lipsitz (1995) has called the ‘possessive investment in whiteness’, and Harris (1993) has theorised as ‘whiteness as property’. These and other social theorists contest the view of whiteness as essential, and instead articulate the material ‘worth’ of whiteness ‘for gaining access to a whole set of public and private privileges that materially and permanently guaranteed basic subsistence needs and therefore survival’ (Harris, 1993:1713; see also Ignatiev, 1995; Morrison, 1992). Whiteness is most evident, ironically, when it is denied or obfuscated as if only ‘normal’. It is at once constituted by exclusivity and privilege and premised on innocence and deservingness. This innocence is maintained by Americans’ preference for individual rather than structural explanations for social problems, including explanations that demonise ‘people of color for being victimized…while hiding the privileges of Whiteness by attributing them to family values, fatherhood and foresight-rather than to favoritism’ (Lipsitz, 1995:379).
