ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the issue of marginality by discussing the racism that is present in the ‘blank spaces in colonial history’; suggesting that decolonial theory – especially the concept coloniality – can be useful to tease out forgotten or hidden colonial engagements. It focuses on marginal whiteness in different national and historical contexts. The book provides an overview of research on various ‘marginal white populations’ throughout history, focusing on ‘white trash’, ‘rednecks’, ‘hillbillies’, ‘chavs’, ‘bogans’, ‘redlegs’ and ‘poor whites’. It compares differing conceptions of whiteness in three settings: the American mainstream, the Swedish mainstream and the global white nationalism context. The book examines the prospects for American ethno-centrism in understandings of global white identity and the ways in which common academic understandings of whiteness struggle to understand organised racism.
