White Privilege, or Modern Racism

Cheryl Harris's "Whiteness as Property" was a pretty hefty article with a strong historical context and many (mostly engaging and appropriate) examples including seminal court cases and U.S. law in practice. Her main claim is that, with roots in American practices of conquest and colonization, "whiteness" has become more than just a racial identity; it has become a form of property and a foundation for racialized (white) privilege. The development of whiteness as property and the persistence of its continuing legacy contribute to modern ideas and formulations of racism in U.S. society. Interestingly, Laura Pulido also discusses the social effects of white privilege, but in the context of environmental racism and geographic landscapes.

To be honest, I didn't immediately identify with Harris's connection between whiteness and property, but her argument, though lengthy, was well-written with a bevy of pertinent and tangible examples. Her observation that whiteness has an understood and highly prized, if not directly acknowledged, value in our society is certainly true. But the ways that she applied this with various studies, court cases, and historical events really backed up her claim that whiteness does indeed function as a modern (and status-related) form of property.

I think an important part of this argument is the fact that valuing whiteness inherently requires a devaluing of the "other" in order to perpetuate the ideas and practices of white privilege. Both whiteness and property are based on concepts of exclusion (isolating ownership of these entities for one's own), and our entire society operates on the assumption that this privilege should not be disturbed (as it would implicate an upheaval of sorts in almost every social relation that is constructed upon this privilege; that is, all social relations).

I found Harris's article to be more readable than Pulido's, which included discussion of many initially abstract concepts like intentionality and scale in an exploration of essentially, the production of environmental racism by both conscious effort (targeting of groups) and unconscious and broader social processes ("white flight", etc). I connected more deeply with Harris's discussion of white privilege as it affected (and effected) real policies concerning issues like affirmative action.