"Varieties of White Racial Identity" with Monica McDermott, Asst. Professor of Sociology

Prof. McDermott will be discussing three distinct ways of experiencing white racial identity: as perceived stigma, as privilege, and as an identity to be transcended. Details of these experiences of whiteness are illustrated with three cases of working class areas with different racial profiles: Atlanta, Boston and Central Appalachia.

The analysis is based upon participant observation research as a convenience store clerk in Atlanta and Boston and on interviews and observations in Appalachia. Whites in Atlanta and Appalachia fail to see the "privilege" of whiteness, and instead feel stigmatized for being both white and poor. In Atlanta, whites respond with a defensive attack on blacks who assert racial victimization, while many Appalachian whites are rejecting their whiteness and proclaiming a mixed-race identity: "Melungeon." Conversely, whites in Boston embrace a white identity as a marker of hard work, if not superiority. The sources for this difference are rooted in the historical development of class, race and ethnicity in the three areas, especially the relative concentrations of blacks and affluent whites in the three regions.