Chapter 1: The matter of Whiteness

“As long as race is something only applied to non-white peoples, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we functions as a human norm. Other people are raced, we are just people” (Rothenberg, 2005, p.10).


This chapter, The Matter of Whiteness, focuses on the racial imagery of White people. The ideas, values, and norms of the Western cultural are centered on Whiteness. To be White is to be normal. To be normal, which is the standard that all other ethnic groups are measured against, is the equivalent of “being human.” Dyer, the chapter’s author, gives examples of how the racial imagery of Whiteness are perpetuated in everyday life. This White imagery is especially highlighted in daily use through speech and visual images. When White people speak of the “other” White people name the ethnicity of the other. For example, Whites often refer to the Blackness or Mexicaness of friends, colleagues, customers, or clients but do not refer to the Whiteness of White people they know (Rothenberg, 2005).

Dyer also writes about the invisibility of Whiteness and its power. White people have access to this power and privilege and intentionally or unintentionally participate in it. “White power, nonetheless reproduces itself regardless of intention, power differences and goodwill, and overwhelmingly because it is not seen as whiteness, but as normal (Rothenberg, 2005, p. 12).

An everyday, routine activity such as thumbing through a magazine stands out in my mind when reflecting on this topic. My senior year in high-school, (which was a predominately White school) I brought a magazine to school so I could thumb through it before class started. This was a common practice for many high-school girls. I was so excited to have the newest edition of Essence magazine (which was geared toward African-American females). A White girl behind me asked if she could look at my magazine. I didn’t mind because she often shared her magazines with me. She asked me, “Why are there only Black people in this magazine.” I was so offended but I didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate my frustration at the time. Instead I snapped at her and replied sharply, “I don’t know. Why are their only White people in the magazines you read?” Then I snatched the magazine away from her and faced forward in my seat.

Looking back on this situation, I know now that I got tired of consistently getting bombarded with images of Whiteness because it did not give voice or value to my existence, experiences or my norms. In that moment, with that White girl, I was mad that my Blackness was named and her Whiteness was accepted as the normal. What was worse is that she could not see it and I felt frustrated because I did not know how to speak about it. This incident is one of many in my life that re-affirmed that power of the invisibility of Whiteness which equates to privilege and can easily marginalize the other.