White Norms Research Articles

"Searching for equity: White normativity in online skin cancer images".

In this paper, we examine the range of skin tones represented in publicly available online image search results through which non-medical audiences might seek information about skin cancer signs, symptoms, and risks. We use the Fitzpatrick scale, a numerical classification system grouping six human skin tones (or "phototypes") in dermatology, as a guide for analyzing the skin tones appearing in (n=1600) Google image search results for search terms related to skin cancer. We find that light skin tones (1,2, and 3 on the Fitzpatrick scale) comprise the significant majority (roughly 96%) of those depicted in Google image searches of information about skin cancer signs and prevention; dark skin tones (4, 5, and 6 on the Fitzpatrick scale) appear with significantly less frequency (roughly 4%) in the same search results. Disparate representation of diverse skin tones-and, more specifically, omission of dark skin images-suggests that racial biases inflect the search results generated by seemingly race-neutral skin-cancer related search terms. This embedded racial bias privileges white normativity to the disadvantage of dark-skinned patients, who are most likely to be racially classified as Black.

Queer Transgressive Cultural Capital in <em>When the Moon Was Ours</em>

In this article, we examine Anna-Marie McLemore’s When the Moon Was Ours (2016) through the theory of Queer Transgressive Cultural Capital. In doing so, we argue that queer and trans characters subvert existing Westernized systems of care, which are frequently reified in existing queer and trans young adult literature. We first explore how McLemore’s text uses magical realism to disrupt common trans narratives in Western contexts, in addition to exposing the norms that continue to haunt contemporary queer texts. Next, we draw from the history of trans medicine in Western contexts to examine how multiple characters in McLemore’s novel use their cultural knowledge and practices to examine their identities, think about their gender and sexuality outside of Western models of care and medicine, and challenge the normative ideals that threaten queer and trans lives, both real and fictional. Lastly, we consider When the Moon Was Ours’ potential to challenge the norms of whiteness, medicine, and the body present in the larger corpus of YA literature. We end with a consideration of the implications of teaching When the Moon Was Ours and including trans narratives in the classroom.

‘Buddhism Won’t Be an Asian Thing Anymore’: U.S. Periodical Representations of Buddhism and Whiteness

ABSTRACT In Race and Religion in American Buddhism, Joseph Cheah argued there was an ‘undertheorization of race in new immigrant Buddhist studies’. Since then, the statement has become less applicable. A growing corpus of scholarship addresses Buddhist intersections with U.S. indigeneity, ‘Pureland’ Buddhism’s acceptance in Black communities, Buddhism’s intersections with U.S. racial protest traditions, and explicit interrogation of the role of White normativity and supremacy within U.S. Buddhist sanghas. Concerning the latter, the critical study of Whiteness and Buddhism is in ascendance. Yet, less developed is a systematic study of media discourse on race, Whiteness, and Buddhism. Despite the wealth of material on ethno-racial categories, media, and religion, there remains little scholarly investigation of mainstream U.S. newspapers and Buddhist periodicals’ depictions of Buddhism and Whiteness. This article covers both emic and etic perspectives on this relationship through examination of over 250 American media articles published in both mainstream and Buddhist periodicals over the past half-century (1970–2021). Findings reveal both stunning narrative heterogeneity and rather muddied and contradictory media framing as well as the presence of nine general themes (six from mainstream- and three from Buddhist-periodicals) that coalesce in certain moments but also span just over 50 years.

Everyday Black Futurity in Popular Culture

Black popular culture draws on everyday Black experiences to create ideas of futurity. There are well known examples of Afrofuturism, such as the Black Panther films, as well as the music of George Clinton, Sun Ra, Janelle Monáe, and Erykah Badu, which offer profound versions of Black futures. In addition to these essential examples, some artists are not always explicitly named as such and incorporate robust conceptions of futurity and speculation into their work. This article examines the performances of Missy Elliott, Megan Thee Stallion, and Cedric the Entertainer. It argues that through their embodied performance practices that cite Black life, they create persuasive critiques of the present and move forward ideas about the future. In addition to using futuristic settings and themes, their embodiments work to put forth compelling ideas of speculation. These artists employ notions of the posthuman, a speculative figure that interrogates the category of the human through embodied gestures, dances, and other movement styles. The examined performances challenge notions of respectability established through white norms and neoliberal disciplinary mechanisms that police and harm Black bodies and render them outside of humanness. Specifically, Missy, Cedric, and Megan’s performances are rooted in concepts like ghetto, ratchet, and hood, which push back against US society’s notions of the human as defined through the respectable laboring body that is also read through the standard of whiteness. The twin dynamic of the human and posthuman provide critiques of the historic and layered expansiveness of anti-blackness while also centering Black people’s joy, pleasure, desire, and freedom. As such, these performances proffer notions of the present and future, the human and the posthuman. The force and effectiveness of these artists’ performances reside in how they draw from the everyday ways Black people articulate ideas of radical futurity.

Epistemic Marginalization and Methodology 50 Years after The Death of White Sociology

In its original form, the following essay was the closing keynote address of the annual meeting of the Sociology of Education Association (SEA), held in Monterey, California on February 20, 2023. That year was the 50th anniversary of both the founding of SEA and the publication of the landmark volume, The Death of White Sociology. In commemorating these events and assessing how the field of sociology has changed 50 years later, this essay juxtaposes the promise of critical quantitative and computational methods (CritQCM) with the problems of epistemic marginalization highlighted in the volume. After describing the rich theoretical diversity foregrounding the critical quantitative and computational movement, the discussion elaborates on three epistemic threats to the aim of the movement to develop and practice counter-hegemonic methodologies. These threats include (1) the qualitative-quantitative divide, (2) White norms and Black epistemic rigor, and (3) normative theory privileging. The essay concludes by contextualizing these epistemic threats with the nation’s current challenge of anomie, which has destabilized normative processes of knowledge recognition, and considers ways CritQCM might respond.

Young white children's (not so) innocent wonderings about skin color

Issues of race and racism in early childhood education remain under-researched in Denmark—a country where the ideology of equity is particularly prevalent. However, international research on race and racism has long shown that children as young as three to four years of age can express stereotypes and develop prejudicial attitudes related to race, leading to exclusionary social behaviors. This article presents a microsocial analysis of how skin color becomes a socially constructed site of power and access in children's social processes of differentiation. The article is written from the perspective of childhood sociology and is based on participant observations from critical ethnographic-inspired fieldwork conducted in a Danish kindergarten. The analysis shows how normative whiteness orientates two white five-year-old boys’ interpretations of a four-year-old Black girl's dark-complexioned skin. By extension, the article discusses why young white children's meaning-making wonderings about skin color should not be considered an innocent everyday part of kindergarten life. Finally, the article considers the role of early childhood educators when emphasizing the importance of recognizing early childhood education settings as critical sites in the (re)production and disruption of contemporary issues of race and racism.

Motivations for Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: Understanding Interpretations of Ancestry Results

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) has the potential to significantly impact racial and ethnic identities as well as social concepts of race and ethnicity. Prior literature challenges the binary choice of essentialism vs. constructionism in understanding consumers’ interpretations of genetic ancestry results. Largely focusing on differences by race and ethnicity, this research finds that test takers selectively apply genetically determinist logic depending on their prior identities and interests. We extend this line of inquiry using in-depth interviews with thirty-six mostly white participants who had previously taken a DTCGT offering combined health and ancestry results, which provided an opportunity to explore how different motivations for testing – e.g., for health or ancestry information – impact interpretations of ancestry results. Our analysis reveals distinct patterns in how health- vs. ancestry-motivated consumers invoke genetic determinism in their interpretations of DTCGT results. At the same time, regardless of motivation for testing, we found little use of genetic results to challenge the coherence or biological basis of racial or ethnic categories. Our results suggest that even if genetic determinism is only selectively applied, and in ways that vary between consumers with different motivations for testing, at least among whites, discourses of genetics as “truth” and white normativity are nonetheless the prevailing interpretive frameworks for genetic ancestry results.

Intersectional Identity and Well-being During COVID-19: An Investigation into the Disproportionate Effects of Stress and Burnout on Educators Holding One or More Marginalized Identities

This intersectional study critically examines the mechanisms contributing to perceptions of stress, stigma, burnout, and well-being for educators holding one or more marginalized identities. Survey data were collected from American educators (N = 450) in the spring of 2021 to assess inequities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses reveal the unequal effects of prolonged stress on the health of marginalized educators. Results of this study highlight the utility of intersectional inquiry for understanding the disproportionate effects of public health crises on marginalized members of the public and can inform educational and public health policies that promote equity and inclusion while reducing hierarchical systems of power and oppression. Furthermore, this research underscores the need to reevaluate best practices for sampling and data cleaning to decenter norms of Whiteness and heteronormativity and embrace the multifaceted nature of identity.

Representing disability in queer fanfiction: Analyzing the role of whiteness and intimacy in depicting desirable disabled masculinity

Fanfiction is a media which blends canon texts with audience reimaginings, wherein fans take up existing narratives and make them their own. This paper analyzes story tags on the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) and a case study of “Malex,” a notable relationship between two canonically disabled characters, to examine the salience of their disabilities in fanfiction which presents them as desirable romantic and/or sexual prospects. I discuss the desexualization of disabled people as well as the tendency for fanfiction to (re)produce norms of whiteness and maleness, and examine how Malex-focused stories are similar to and different from stories about characters who are not canonically in a relationship. Overall, I argue that fanfiction has the ability to queer and crip existing social narratives, depicting disability as a real and desirable part of diverse relationships. However, as it stands, whiteness, maleness, and the intimacy of perceived vulnerability remain the cornerstones of desirable disabilities.

“Standard” Appearance and “Accentless” Speech: How Performance Neutrality Limits Diversity in Broadcast News

Scholars commonly reference journalistic neutrality, but not in the context of self-presentation. This study examines how journalists feel compelled to demonstrate neutrality through their performance of self. Through in-depth interviews ( n = 57) with broadcast journalists and those who shape their on-air presentation, I explore the construct of performance neutrality, identifying dimensions related to speech, appearance, and demeanor. Journalists negotiated expectations of performance neutrality by conforming to—and in some cases challenging—restrictive institutionalized norms. Drawing on social constructionism theory and the notion of White normativity, I argue that neutrality is a false ideal that upholds the status quo and limits diversity in broadcast journalism.

Listening to the voices of minoritised ethnic postgraduate researchers in the United Kingdom

Racism and inequity remain high in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), thwarting minoritized ethnic postgraduate researchers’ prospects. This study aimed to understand the experiences of this group of students and produce participants-led recommendations. Fifteen participants (home and overseas) were interviewed, and the data were analysed using reflexive inductive thematic analysis. The analysis generated four themes: disempowerment, systemic deficits, weathering and from surviving to thriving. The results suggest that HE environments remain White spaces, dominated by White norms and systems that disempower minoritized ethnic postgraduate researchers. Female and international doctoral students were particularly disadvantaged. Participants’ recommendations to HEIs centred on HEIs offering proactive support and creating culturally sensitive environments. The cultural shift within HEIs needs to go beyond superficial policies and tackle racism and forms of oppression if lasting and profound change is to occur. In turn, this will foster a positive experience for all students.

Normative whiteness in Finnish university education

ABSTRACT As a Nordic welfare state, Finland shares a collective self-image as a forerunner of equality and democracy. Education is seen as a key instrument for social justice, and higher education policy in Finland largely reflects this principle. Still, university education is a site of privilege, where student composition mainly represents individuals from white ethnicities and middle-class backgrounds, who speak one of the national languages as their first language. This is the context in which we ask, ‘How does whiteness “matter” in Finnish university education?’ Drawing on interviews with university students racialised as non-white, our study demonstrates first how the norm of whiteness is manifested both in the official and informal university spaces, thus operating a racialised touchstone for belonging. Second, our study shows how the practices of white ignorance among other students and teaching staff prevent the recognition and dismantling of racialised power relations. Thus, we argue that the process of tackling racial inequalities in university education is still in its infancy in Finland. Changing this situation would require, first and foremost, the critical reflection and dismantling of normative whiteness within the Academy.

Semiotic whitening: Whiteness without white people

AbstractIn the borderlands of south Texas, the Mexican and Mexican American social practice of naming includes the use of English‐language names and nicknames, anglicized pronunciations, and English‐language spellings and “misspellings,” all of which potentially index at least two historically informed perspectives: (1) the hegemonic “white gaze”; and (2) a localized, interrogating gaze. In this article, I focus on local naming practices to advance an approach to what I call semiotic whitening—the indexical linking of any phenomenon to the idealized norms of whiteness—to better understand how whiteness works from the perspective of Mexicans and Mexican Americans living in a geographic region (informed by colonial and white supremacist histories) where few white folks reside.

Critical whiteness theory and social work education: turning the lens inward

ABSTRACT The social work profession adheres to the values of social justice and equity, yet extensive literature suggests that anti-racism education in social work has room for growth. Research demonstrates that social work practitioners and educators often fail to recognize (1) how structural oppression creates racial inequities and (2) how social workers maintain and reproduce hegemonic power structures. Critical whiteness theory (CWT) seeks to reveal the invisible role of whiteness in constructing racial inequities. As a subject area, critical whiteness studies emerged in the late 1990s as an expansion of critical race theory. A variety of disciplines have incorporated critical whiteness studies as a framework for anti-racism education; however, CWT remains relatively absent from the social work literature. This paper proposes the incorporation of CWT in social work education as a tool to facilitate critical self-reflexivity and combat structural racism within the profession. Engaging with the concepts of white normativity, white ignorance, and white complicity allows social work educators and students to acknowledge and interrogate the formative ways in which social work pedagogy maintains and reproduces white supremacy.

Whiteness and Bodies Out of Place: A Critical Discussion of Early Childhood Educators’ Regulatory Language Practice in a Danish Context

This article sheds light on contemporary interconnections between colonialism, whiteness and notions of Danishness. It offers a critical perspective on the possible (side) effects of emphasising Danish language proficiency in everyday pedagogical encounters with racial-ethnic minoritised children. Taking on the notion of coloniality of power (Quijano, 2000), the article considers Denmark’s colonial complicity and its present implications in today’s social structures and, in particular, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The article is based on critical ethnographic fieldwork (Madison, 2020) conducted in a Danish ECEC centre. By theorising whiteness (Ahmed, 2007) in relation to ideals of Danish language proficiency and by drawing on postcolonial theory (Fanon, 1952/2021, 1967), the article investigates how a regulatory language practice performed by ECEC educators can be understood as normative whiteness affecting a group of three 4–6-year-old racial-ethnic minoritised children with Turkish backgrounds. The analyses show how the children navigate the white space of the ECEC centre by adjusting their bodies accordingly as they are rendered bodies out of place. Conclusively, the article points to Danish ECEC institutions as critical sites in the reproduction of colonial power structures.

Destabilizing whiteness and black oppression in academe: a critical analysis of power, consciousness, and liberation

Whiteness is a pernicious and pervasive problem deeply rooted in the fabric of public institutions and organizations. This article critically examines the intricate interplay between whiteness, black oppression, consciousness, power dynamics, and liberation within academe. The authors interrogate the historical and socio-political foundations of whiteness and its pervasive influence on systemic marginalization and oppression. We draw from Black studies, whiteness studies, and critical race theory to both theorize constructions of whiteness and analyze its impact on Black oppression in the academy. We advocate for shifts in institutional practice preceded by shifts in consciousness that would then influence behavior. We propose two alternative models to analyze whiteness: Framework 1: explores the nature of whiteness and white normativity as embedded in a paradigm that centers power in privilege, fear, and fragility; Framework 2 puts forth a liberatory vision, one that requires a shift from privilege to environmentally sustainable living, from fragility to internal resilience, and from fear to the decolonization of the mind. These frameworks call out and seek to disrupt oppressive structures, intending to decolonize and emancipate our minds and envision ways to dismantle and disentangle ourselves from blindly obeying norms perpetrated by whiteness.

“Soul on Ice”: Black Commodification, Race, and the National Hockey League

The NHL has a long-standing, problematic relationship with race. The North American sporting and racial climate have brought even more attention to this reality. A notable tactic to counter the accusation of reinforcing racism within sports corporations, including the NHL, is publicly associating themselves with minoritized organizations. This often occurs through formal partnerships or the acquisition of minoritized-founded entities, initiatives, and organizations. This paper considers how salient discourses of race and Blackness are articulated by the hosts and contributors of NHL Studio’s Soul on Ice: The Podcast (SOIP) as an acquired NHL entity. The NHL aims to reposition itself on issues of race and the portrayal of Black members within hockey through SOIP. The podcast gives a platform to empower Black voices within White hockey culture but also problematically enmeshes the NHL within the commodification of Black culture and hardship. The acquisition of Soul on Ice: The Podcast by the NHL is used to sanitize and shield the league while reinforcing the normative Whiteness of hockey. Further, the consequences of the leagues’ commodification of Blackness and the nuanced experiences of Black NHL players and community members shared via the podcast are unpacked.

Narratives of self: identity formation among marginalized groups studying abroad

This article calls attention to the complex ways in which study abroad participants make meaning and narrate their experiences abroad. I ask, how do participants understand their study abroad experiences in relation to informing and giving meaning to their conceptions of self? To answer this question, this article uses a qualitative case study approach to explore the voices and experiences of low-income, first-generation, ethnoracially minoritized study abroad participants. Participant counternarratives challenge dominant depictions of study abroad on the basis of white normativity. Findings reveal study abroad as engendering a process of rethinking membership, identity, and belonging for ethnoracially minoritized students with intersecting identities. The findings also point to the complexities that participants face as they grapple with the boundaries and feelings of exclusion that their own countries of origin construct to keep them or other marginalized groups from membership.

What Do So‐Called Critical Race Theory Bans Mean for Elementary Literacy Instruction?

AbstractIn recent years, a number of states in the United States have enacted educational policies, often referred to as “critical race theory” bans, that aim to restrict teaching about race and racism in schools. This study examines how current and future elementary literacy educators interpreted and intended to respond to one such law in Tennessee. Drawing theoretically on policy sociology and critical race theory policy analysis, we qualitatively analyzed data generated in focus groups with 18 prospective and practicing teachers. Our findings illustrate the restrictive effects of the policy on elementary literacy instruction, caused partially by teachers interpreting the policy as substantially impeding their ability to engage students in critically reading, writing, and talking about race and racism. Further, findings demonstrate how this new policy intersected with and exacerbated existing curricular constraints in elementary literacy classrooms, including developmental discourses and neoliberal standardization, reinforcing normative whiteness by producing further impediments to elementary literacy instruction as a space to develop critical consciousness about race. This study contributes to emerging literature on the effects of divisive concepts legislation, as well as situating this current legislative wave within existing policy contexts of restriction.

Color-evasiveness and white normativity: Examples set by parents in parent-child interactions in the Netherlands.

Parents can set examples of social norms about ethnic diversity and interethnic relations in interaction with their children. The present study examined whether and how parents set norms of color-evasiveness and White normativity when playing a social categorization game with their children. In a sample of 141 White Dutch, 73 Turkish-Dutch, and 56 Black Dutch mothers of a 6- to 10-year-old child, behaviors reflecting color-evasiveness (avoiding skin color questions, asking about skin color late in the game, taking relatively long to formulate skin color questions) and White normativity (bias in ethnic-racial focus used) were observed. Two subsamples (mothers approximately 2 years later and fathers) were used to try to replicate results. Color-evasiveness was most frequent among White Dutch mothers and during the version of the game including pictures of South West Asian/North African and Black adults, but did not depend on the ethnic-racial background of the researchers. All mothers who asked about skin color displayed patterns of ethnic-racial focus that reflect White normativity, by focusing on dark rather than light skin colors. This bias was irrespective of their own ethnic-racial background, ethnic-racial background of the researchers, and the version of the game. Patterns of color-evasiveness and White normativity were largely replicated in both subsamples. These results suggest that children might already learn societal norms that conflict with anti-racism in very basic parent-child interactions situations. Future research is needed to investigate how to foster more inclusive social norms such as color consciousness in the next generation and their parents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).