The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by intent, racism by consequence - Teresa J. Guess

1 Is white a racial category? Is studying whiteness racist?

2. Is there such a thing as white American culture, or is there only American culture? What difference does it make?

3. What is colorblindness and how does it affect white Americans? Is there another, perhaps better, way to view color?

White often refers to those of European decent. Being white affects a person more than just another racial category. Being white awards unearned privlege and is a very interesting topic to study. It is very important for those who are considered white to know of this privilege that they get that others are not able to recieve. Studying whiteness is not racist, it is essential to realizing how society works and why some face different circumstances than others. It is turning racism around and looking at privilege that is there for no reason.
White American culture is considered the mainstream American culture. When people look at American culture, they see black culture, hispanic culture etc, but they assume that white culture includes everyone, although it often excludes. Everything that is white is invisible because it is not labelled racially, it is considered mainstream.
Colourblindness is a form of antiracism that actually still promotes racism. By not seeing different colours, we can try to eliminate stereotyping and prejudice, but then we ignore culture that is important to different people. We defalt to seeing everyone as white and white cultured rather than seeing our society as diverse and involving many cultures.