Princeton Weekly Bulletin April 12, 1999
Whiteness in Historical Perspective
Course shows how race is more than skin color and "'whiteness' itself is a constantly evolving social construct"
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Crystal Feimster (in flowered
shirt) leading her precept (photo by Denise
Applewhite)
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About 15 students -- African American, Asian, Hispanic and white -- are taking an innovative course this semester called Whiteness in Historical Perspective, taught by Nell Painter, Edwards Professor of American History.
Whiteness studies is a growing field, Painter says. "It's revolutionary to make whiteness visible as a racial designation. Usually whiteness is unmarked, neutral. Part of being white is the privilege of not seeing yourself as marked. You do not spend your life being aware of your whiteness, unless you choose to do so."
Painter describes the course as "a historical investigation of the genealogy of the concept of whiteness in the West, mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly in the United States." It is not -- and she emphasizes "not" -- "an investigation of white racism and white supremacy, not an account of what white people have done to others, not a proof or disproof of the existence of 'races.'"
In the West, she notes, "race" has come to designate far more than skin color or geographical provenance. The terms 'white' and 'black' also convey asymmetries of political and economic power, social prestige, beauty, goodness and intelligence. Whiteness "has symbolized political power, but its main function has been to stand in for class: whiteness is associated with the middle and upper class, nonwhiteness with poverty and the working class." Such concepts "erase the existence of masses of poor whites."
Menace of the Under Man
Texts for the course are a variety of primary and secondary sources. Lothrop Stoddard's The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man (1922), for example, warns Americans against the "under man," the European immigrant worker, whom Stoddard presents as discontented, uneducated and unwilling to change. Rather, he says, they wanted to change America -- for example, "by striking for an eight-hour day and a six-day week," Painter points out dryly.
Other readings include Lillian Smith's Killers of the Dream (1940), which "shows that growing up white in the south and being taught racism is as deleterious to white children as to African American children," says preceptor Crystal Feimster, a graduate student in history.
She also points to Dorothy Allison's novel, Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure (1996), which "shows what it's like growing up poor and white in the South, living with stereotypes of 'poor white trash' and the assumption that, if you're a woman, you're not a 'lady' but someone who sleeps around."
Or Carleton Coon's, The Races of Europe (1939), which "scientifically" discusses 18 subraces of white Europeans. "If you were taking a course in African American studies and read about 'scientific racism,' you would draw the conclusion that it was African Americans who were being oppressed. It's important to realize that the same theories were applied to white people," Feimster says.
More than one kind of white
Images are as telling as documents, and Painter employs many in her lectures. American 19th-century cartoons, for example, show Irish immigrants as "dark, with protruding jaws, violent and always drunk," she says. However, as these and other immigrant groups became absorbed into the dominant culture and adopted its values, they came to be regarded as "white."
Still, Painter stresses, there is more than one kind of white. "White and male is not the same as white and female; similarly, white and Protestant is not the same as white and Catholic or white and Jewish."
In a recent lecture, she discussed the case of Leo Frank, who was accused of murdering a girl named Mary Phagan in 1913. Frank was a Cornell-educated Jew raised in New York City, living in Atlanta. President of his local B'nai Brith, active in civic affairs, he was supervisor at the National Pencil Factory, where Phagan worked. Phagan was found dead after going to the factory to collect her pay. The only witness against Frank was Jim Conley, the factory's black janitor.
The case against Frank emphasized Frank's Jewishness, both in court and in the press. Illustrations showed him with a huge nose, and newspapers said he was supported by "big Hebrew money." Phagan was portrayed as a member of the Christian Bible School on her way to the Confederate Memorial Day parade -- a "very pretty girl with dimples in her cheeks," according to her mother. In this popular view, says Painter, "Mary died because she wouldn't yield her virtue to a Semitic libertine."
Frank's defenders accused Conley of the murder -- and also employed vicious stereotypes of blacks. "Frank's lawyer did not think that a black janitor would be believed over a genteel, educated white man," said Painter, "but, in this instance, whiteness was no protection."
Frank was imprisoned, released by the governor (who then received death threats) and eventually lynched by the KKK. Years later, in 1982, "A former office boy at the pencil factory testified that he had seen Conley carrying the body, and Frank was innocent," Painter says.
Balanced view of perceptions
Examining the concept of whiteness has provided students in the class an additional lens through which to view American culture. "Understanding that being 'white' has more to it than skin color and that 'whiteness' itself is a constantly evolving social construct is important to consider when discussing race relations, prejudices and social class, to name just a few issues," says Joe Wardenski '00.
And Uchenna Ukaegbu '00 reflects, "As an African American, I'm more equipped to understand diversity among blacks, while whites seemed to me a homogenous group. The fact that 'whiteness' is more dependent on socioeconomic status than biology was really a surprise for me and has taught me much about human nature." The course is useful, she believes, "in providing a more balanced view of perceptions of race in this country."
While much material for studying whiteness exists, there is as yet no comprehensive text book, Painter says. Her next project will be a book on "Whiteness in Historical Perspective."