{"title":"Whiteness in Question: the Anatomy of a Taxonomy Across Transnational Contexts.","authors":"Raluca Bejan","doi":"10.1007/s10624-022-09665-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The idea of whiteness has been used in the Anglo-American, middle-class, liberal settings to denote an essential group appurtenance on phenotypical and cultural terms and to code such appurtenance as a universal marker of privilege that cuts across any other differentiating axes that allocate societal advantages and disadvantages. The assumption that racialized skin colour and low social status are inferiorizing attributes of racialization, while white skin colour and high social class are privileged attributes of whiteness, has constructed the idea of whiteness as one that encompasses and supersedes the idea of class. Immigrants to Anglo-American multicultural societies have always been relegated to the margins of their host societies, and their economic exclusion, in particular, has been theorized as resulting from their racialization. This paper, however, compares and contrasts the marginalization of two migrant populations-namely, high-skilled immigrants to Canada, and Eastern European low-skilled immigrants to the UK-to problematize the assumption that whiteness has an essential sameness that universally cuts across other stratifying axes in society, and to show that an essentialist understanding of whiteness disregards class-based explanations for the economic exclusion of migrants, explanations which are often bound with the global circulation of capital and the dominant economic position of the rich nations from the Global North.</p>","PeriodicalId":45970,"journal":{"name":"DIALECTICAL ANTHROPOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9380683/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"DIALECTICAL ANTHROPOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-022-09665-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/8/16 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The idea of whiteness has been used in the Anglo-American, middle-class, liberal settings to denote an essential group appurtenance on phenotypical and cultural terms and to code such appurtenance as a universal marker of privilege that cuts across any other differentiating axes that allocate societal advantages and disadvantages. The assumption that racialized skin colour and low social status are inferiorizing attributes of racialization, while white skin colour and high social class are privileged attributes of whiteness, has constructed the idea of whiteness as one that encompasses and supersedes the idea of class. Immigrants to Anglo-American multicultural societies have always been relegated to the margins of their host societies, and their economic exclusion, in particular, has been theorized as resulting from their racialization. This paper, however, compares and contrasts the marginalization of two migrant populations-namely, high-skilled immigrants to Canada, and Eastern European low-skilled immigrants to the UK-to problematize the assumption that whiteness has an essential sameness that universally cuts across other stratifying axes in society, and to show that an essentialist understanding of whiteness disregards class-based explanations for the economic exclusion of migrants, explanations which are often bound with the global circulation of capital and the dominant economic position of the rich nations from the Global North.
期刊介绍:
Dialectical Anthropology is an international journal that seeks to invigorate discussion among left intellectuals by publishing peer-reviewed articles, editorials, letters, reports from the field, political exchanges, and book reviews. The journal aims to foster open debate through criticism, research and commentary from across the social sciences and humanities. It provides a forum for work with a pronounced dialectical approach to social theory and political practice for scholars, public intellectuals, and activists who are interested in Marxism and political-economy. The journal also welcomes submissions from those who wish to be in dialogue or debate with these traditions. Since 1975, Dialectical Anthropology has been dedicated to working towards the transformation of class society through internationalizing conversations that focus on crises of capitalism and the means for social change.
The format of Dialectical Anthropology is shaped by these goals. Submissions accepted for peer review are sent to scholars, public intellectuals and activists whose comments are often published along with replies by the manuscript author to engender a dialogic exchange. The " Forum" is also dedicated to reciprocal engagement as scholars, public intellectuals and activists are invited to respond to forum statements meant to provoke debate and discussion. These exchanges provide space for dialectical engagement from a broad range of perspectives about significant issues of our time, Finally, while the book review section follows the traditional 1000 word format, Dialectical Anthropology encourages the submission of substantial essays that comparatively analyze multiple books, films, novels and other texts to contextualize them within contemporary politics, economics, society and culture.
Dialectical Anthropology invites contributions from authors committed to international political engagement across disciplinary divides, communities of practice, and oppositional political traditions by encouraging contributions from authors who seek to combine theories and practices of social change. The journal is committed to reaching beyond an Anglophone readership and encourages submissions, dialogue and active participation in languages other than English. The journal will publish these submissions to the extent that its resources and capabilities allow. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via the Springer Website at http://dial.edmgr.com and should include abstract, five keywords, and three suggested reviewers.