‘Whiteness’ Studies Started in Academy, Corrupted Political Discourse

Whiteness lies at the heart of American degradation, we are told constantly by figures on the left these days. After the horrifying, disgraceful January 6 attack on the national Capitol Building, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed that rioters “have chosen their whiteness over democracy. That’s what this is about.” Progressives blame whiteness for creating COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on minority communities and insist that racial justice, not the vulnerability of the elderly, should determine vaccination priority because “older populations are whiter.” They denounce education for offering a “monolithic, European perspective” that “upholds Whiteness.” They dismiss old-fashioned journalistic standards of even-handedness because “the views and inclinations of whiteness are accepted as the objective neutral.” They discern the insidious influence of whiteness in religion, law, sports, and entertainment.

Whiteness, according to this pervasive left-wing narrative, inspires and shapes all problems in the United States, which therefore must be relentlessly racialized in order to root whiteness out. As one critic who accuses Greek and Roman classical texts of undergirding a Western civilization of racial repression recently put it, “Classics and whiteness are the bone and sinew of the same body; they grew strong together and they may have to die together.” To such ends a flotilla of progressive Ahabs grimly pursues the whale of whiteness into every inlet and channel of American life with political harpoons poised and ready to strike.

About the Author

Steven Watts

Steven Watts is a professor of history at the University of Missouri and the author of seven books on the American past.

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Whiteness lies at the heart of American degradation, we are told constantly by figures on the left these days. After the horrifying, disgraceful January 6 attack on the national Capitol Building, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed that rioters “have chosen their whiteness over democracy. That’s what this is about.” Progressives blame whiteness for creating COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on minority communities and insist that racial justice, not the vulnerability of the elderly, should determine vaccination priority because “older populations are whiter.” They denounce education for offering a “monolithic, European perspective” that “upholds Whiteness.” They dismiss old-fashioned journalistic standards of even-handedness because “the views and inclinations of whiteness are accepted as the objective neutral.” They discern the insidious influence of whiteness in religion, law, sports, and entertainment.

Whiteness, according to this pervasive left-wing narrative, inspires and shapes all problems in the United States, which therefore must be relentlessly racialized in order to root whiteness out. As one critic who accuses Greek and Roman classical texts of undergirding a Western civilization of racial repression recently put it, “Classics and whiteness are the bone and sinew of the same body; they grew strong together and they may have to die together.” To such ends a flotilla of progressive Ahabs grimly pursues the whale of whiteness into every inlet and channel of American life with political harpoons poised and ready to strike.