Unsettling Whiteness (339-0-20)
Instructors
Herman Barnor Hesse
8474913775
1860 Campus Dr Crowe 5-131
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
What is the single most obvious and significant thing that can be said about the US, even with a rudimentary knowledge of US history, which is the least remarked upon, least analysed, and least studied, and yet without it, the US as we understand today would not exist as we know it? The answer is ‘whiteness'. Whiteness as a word and concept can be difficult and troubling to understand for some. In this course whiteness refers to three phenomena: First, the dominant representation of people in the US who historically came to describe and understand themselves as ‘white' on the basis of exploiting, violating, segregating, oppressing, administrating, marginalizing and caricaturing those designated as ‘non-white' (e.g. Black, Native American, Asian, Latinx). Second, the hegemonic cultural norms identified as white in ruling the institutions, governments, laws, ideas, policies of the US that assume and support the sovereign dominance, rights and authority of white populations over non-white populations. Third, the inheritance and acceptance of white ruling culture (e.g. white supremacy, white privilege) as normative; and (in the post-civil rights era), the denial that whiteness exists, together with opposition to any attempts to highlight, expose or discuss it. This course will discuss whiteness in historical, political, cultural and visual terms and also present conceptual tools for the analysis of whiteness as a dominant formation.
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Interdisciplinary Distro-rules apply
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area