An Exploratory Paper on Understanding Whiteness
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This chapter examines Whiteness as a category. The aim of this work is to contribute to understanding and deconstructing Whiteness; this is done (loosely) within the framework of Whiteness Studies. The main argument is that anti-Blackness anchors and centers Whiteness. Whiteness is situated at the center; an ideal Whiteness occupies the core of the center while White ethnicities orbit the core. A constitutive Blackness occupies the core of the most external periphery and Black ethnicities orbit the core of Blackness. Non-White and Non-Black races are organized between the center (ideal Whiteness), and the external periphery (constitutive Blackness). Within this construct non-White races seek proximity to Whiteness through the performance of ideal Whiteness. It is within this space that the model minority (non- White/non-Black) is constructed. The assertion is that the model minority construct simultaneously re-centers Whiteness and creates Blackness as the antithesis of Whiteness. A central tenant of this essay is that in order to deconstruct and de-center Whiteness, one must unpin it from its anchor—anti-Blackness.