Concluded projects
of the Institute of Conflict Research
The Privilege of Invisibility
Racism With a Focus on Whiteness and the Culture of Dominance
| Project Management: | Univ. Prof. Dr. Anton Pelinka |
| Project Team: | Mag.a Dr.in Helga Amesberger Mag.a Dr.in Brigitte Halbmayr |
| Financed by: | Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Jubiläumsfonds (nr. 11160) |
| Concluded in | December 2005 |
The The multidisciplinary field of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) in the USA and in German-speaking countries is the starting point of our doctoral thesis. The characteristics of CWS, which are rooted in the research field of racism, lie in the systematic consideration and reflection of whiteness as a system of privilege and dominance as well as in its shift of the focus from the racially discriminated to the discriminators. Against a background of the primarily US-American discourse having largely been accepted, we pose the question what significance could the approaches of CWS have on the research on racism in Austria. Furthermore, we consider whether the dominant-culture-approach, developed by Birgit Rommelspacher (1995), which has hardly been acknowledged to date, is not more adequate for analyzing racism and inequality in the Austrian context. The critical analysis of texts primarily written by social scientists focuses on the central terms of the CWS, on intersectionality, power and the shift of the perspective.
We start with an in-depth discussion of the central terms of CWS: race and whiteness. The (historical) processes of racialization in the USA reveal the ideological and social constructedness of race and whiteness, but also their contingency. With the discussion of the central terms we aim to unfold the epistemological basis and the meanings, particularly with regard to their application to an Austrian context. Another important question is whether terms and concepts of race and whiteness regenerate and perpetuate racial thinking.
In contrast to the USA in Europe the Fremde (stranger/alien) is at the center of the debate about racism (this is especially true for the German-speaking countries). A historical-structural analysis of racisms which have shaped European history, such as anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism, Orientalism and anti-Islamism or Anti-Gypsyism (antiziganismus), shows that assignments to races and definitions of Fremdheit do not completely overlap. Therefore, a discourse which refers solely to race and whiteness must fall short in an analysis of racisms.
To date, no comprehensive and systematic analysis of the critical whiteness discourse has been undertaken in the USA or in the German-speaking countries. The diverse concepts of whiteness, with regard to the theoretical approaches and topics, can be assigned four main strands: Whiteness as a system of privilege; whiteness as a system of dominance; whiteness as an identity; and whiteness as a location of structural advantage and dominance where dominance and oppression, and/or race privilege and discrimination, interact.
Finally, we compare the concepts of critical whiteness with the dominant-culture-approach which encompasses not only racism as a central system of oppression but also other asymmetrical power relationships like sexism, nationalism, homophobia or discrimination against persons with disabilities. The omnipresence and multidimensionality of power relations and their relative invisibility are fundamental for the development of dominance which in itself claims the power to define the ‘other’, and superiority.
According to our analysis both CWS and the dominant-culture-approach could open up new directions in the research on racisms in Austria. The most salient potential of CWS and the dominant-culture-approach lie in the rigorous shift of focus to the dominant groups and social structures, in making visible the dominant norms, beliefs, material structures and representations which reinforce the hegemony of whiteness, and its focus on privilege.
[GERMAN]
