Producing Whiteness: An exploration of working-class white men in two contexts¹

Abstract

In this essay we enter the terrain of 'whiteness' studies, drawing upon data gathered in two ethnographic investigations conducted in a large northeastern city in the United States. In the first study we focus on the ways in which whiteness among working-class men emerges in relation to a constructed 'other', in this case a black/Latino other who is held to have unpleasant characteristics. In the second, we problematize the idea that the white European self emerges necessarily in relation to that of a constructed 'dark other' by focusing on white working-class Irish adults who frequent an Irish community centre in the same city. We explore the ways in which the presence of particular spaces within which ethnic identities can flourish may blunt the effects of possible intergroup violence based on the production of a white identity and at the same time potentially encourage a multi-racial set of political coalitions.