Veronica T. Watson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617038891
- eISBN:
- 9781621039808
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617038891.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
The Souls of White Folks: African American Writers Theorize Whiteness is the first study to consider the substantial body of African American writing that critiques Whiteness as social construction ...
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The Souls of White Folks: African American Writers Theorize Whiteness is the first study to consider the substantial body of African American writing that critiques Whiteness as social construction and racial identity. Arguing against the prevailing approach to these texts (which are generally known as “white life literature”) that says African American writers retreated from issues of “race” when they wrote about Whiteness, instead this body of literature is identified as an African American intellectual and literary tradition that is named here as “the literature of white estrangement.” In chapters that theorize white double consciousness (W.E.B. DuBois and Charles Chesnutt), white womanhood and class identity (Zora Neale Hurston and Frank Yerby), and the socio-spatial subjectivity of Southern Whites during the Civil Rights era (Melba Patillo Beals), the historically situated theories and analyses of Whiteness provided by the literature of white estrangement from the late 19th through the mid-twentieth centuries are explored. The author argues that these texts are best understood as part of a multi-pronged approach by African American writers to challenge and dismantle white supremacy in the U.S. and demonstrates that they have an important place in the growing field of critical whiteness studies. The Souls of White Folk utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to excavate the justifications and meanings of whiteness at various historical moments and is attentive to the ways that African American writers wrote against those mythologies and traditions of whiteness in pursuit of racial and social equality.Less
The Souls of White Folks: African American Writers Theorize Whiteness is the first study to consider the substantial body of African American writing that critiques Whiteness as social construction and racial identity. Arguing against the prevailing approach to these texts (which are generally known as “white life literature”) that says African American writers retreated from issues of “race” when they wrote about Whiteness, instead this body of literature is identified as an African American intellectual and literary tradition that is named here as “the literature of white estrangement.” In chapters that theorize white double consciousness (W.E.B. DuBois and Charles Chesnutt), white womanhood and class identity (Zora Neale Hurston and Frank Yerby), and the socio-spatial subjectivity of Southern Whites during the Civil Rights era (Melba Patillo Beals), the historically situated theories and analyses of Whiteness provided by the literature of white estrangement from the late 19th through the mid-twentieth centuries are explored. The author argues that these texts are best understood as part of a multi-pronged approach by African American writers to challenge and dismantle white supremacy in the U.S. and demonstrates that they have an important place in the growing field of critical whiteness studies. The Souls of White Folk utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to excavate the justifications and meanings of whiteness at various historical moments and is attentive to the ways that African American writers wrote against those mythologies and traditions of whiteness in pursuit of racial and social equality.
Anne Warfield Rawls and Waverly Duck
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226703558
- eISBN:
- 9780226703725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226703725.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
In the conclusion we ask: Where do we go from here? It is our position that exposing the Tacit Racism in everyday life, by digging out the lies, and teaching people to make the familiar strange by ...
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In the conclusion we ask: Where do we go from here? It is our position that exposing the Tacit Racism in everyday life, by digging out the lies, and teaching people to make the familiar strange by observing the racism in their own daily lives can generate the empathy and reciprocity needed to finally talk honestly about Race. We call this teaching White double consciousness and we have been teaching it this way for two decades. It is difficult for anyone to remain detached from racism—and continue believing the lies, which are many and sit at the center of American life—when they recognize the part they themselves are playing in producing racism every day. Experiencing double consciousness creates an understanding of how Race frames social life and damages public civility. People who are playing two different games—but judging the Other by the rules of their own game—cannot communicate without serious misunderstanding. The solution is not for White people to act Black, or Black people to act White. What is required is for White people to see themselves as Black people see them—and for both/all sides to have a better understanding of the differences in play.Less
In the conclusion we ask: Where do we go from here? It is our position that exposing the Tacit Racism in everyday life, by digging out the lies, and teaching people to make the familiar strange by observing the racism in their own daily lives can generate the empathy and reciprocity needed to finally talk honestly about Race. We call this teaching White double consciousness and we have been teaching it this way for two decades. It is difficult for anyone to remain detached from racism—and continue believing the lies, which are many and sit at the center of American life—when they recognize the part they themselves are playing in producing racism every day. Experiencing double consciousness creates an understanding of how Race frames social life and damages public civility. People who are playing two different games—but judging the Other by the rules of their own game—cannot communicate without serious misunderstanding. The solution is not for White people to act Black, or Black people to act White. What is required is for White people to see themselves as Black people see them—and for both/all sides to have a better understanding of the differences in play.
Veronica T. Watson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617038891
- eISBN:
- 9781621039808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617038891.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter introduces the key term, the “literature of white estrangement” and argues that African American engagement with whiteness is an unrecognized intellectual tradition within African ...
More
This chapter introduces the key term, the “literature of white estrangement” and argues that African American engagement with whiteness is an unrecognized intellectual tradition within African American letters.Less
This chapter introduces the key term, the “literature of white estrangement” and argues that African American engagement with whiteness is an unrecognized intellectual tradition within African American letters.
