whiteness

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwaɪtnəs/, /ˈʍaɪtnəs/

Noun

whiteness

1. The state of being white (all senses).
2. (sociology, dysphemistic) The collective of White/Europid people and their historical heritage.
   • 2009, Terrance MacMullan, Habits of Whiteness: A Pragmatist Reconstruction (page 182)

     A pragmatist critique of whiteness seeks a middle ground between eliminativism and essentialism; […] Du Bois explained why the habits of whiteness are so toxic: they encourage violence, undermine the formation and sustenance of community, put money before humanity, and leave white folk culturally undernourished and rootless.

   • 2013, Shelley M. Park, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood (page 42)

     As a white body, I have not had to face my whiteness; insofar as the world is oriented around whiteness, I rarely have to turn my attention back onto myself, as do the black and brown bodies that are “stopped” or “held up” for being out of place […]

Antonyms

• blackness

Translations

• French: blancheur, blanchité,blanchitude
• German: Weiße, Weißheit, Weißsein (sociology)
• Italian: bianchezza, biancore
• Portuguese: brancura, alvura
• Russian: белизна́
• Spanish: blancura, albor, albura

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