The Possessive Investment in Whiteness

1. Whiteness is a Possessive Investment with Real Material Value

Whiteness has a cash value: it accounts for advantages that come to individuals through profits made from housing secured in discriminatory markets, through the unequal educational opportunities available to children of different races, through insider networks that channel employment opportunities to the relatives and friends of those who have profited most from present and past racial discrimination, and especially through intergenerational transfers of inherited wealth that pass on the spoils of discrimination to succeeding generations.

Cash value of whiteness. Whiteness isn't just an identity; it's a tangible asset. It provides concrete economic benefits derived from historical and ongoing discrimination in areas like housing, education, and employment. These advantages accumulate over generations, creating a significant wealth gap.

Inherited privilege. Much of the possessive investment in whiteness is passed down through families. Intergenerational transfers of wealth, often built on discriminatory practices like preferential access to FHA loans or insider job networks, give white individuals a head start. This inherited advantage is a key factor in maintaining racial hierarchies.

Social fact, not biology. While biologically and anthropologically a fiction, whiteness is a powerful social fact. It's an identity actively created and maintained through social and cultural forces, with very real consequences for the distribution of resources, power, and opportunity in society.

2. Racism is Systemic, Not Just Individual Prejudice

Conscious and deliberate actions have institutionalized group identity in the United States, not just through the dissemination of cultural stories, but also through the creation of social structures that generate economic advantages for European Americans through the possessive investment in whiteness.

Beyond personal bias. Racism isn't merely about individual attitudes or overt hostility. It's deeply embedded in the structures and institutions of society, from legal systems to economic policies. These systems were consciously designed to create and perpetuate racial hierarchies.

Institutionalized advantage. Public policies and private practices work together to create a system where advantages are systematically channeled to white people. This happens through:

• Discriminatory housing markets (redlining, steering)
• Unequal educational funding and access
• Insider employment networks
• Biased criminal justice practices

Structural, not accidental. The disadvantages faced by communities of color are not random or due to inherent group deficiencies. They are the direct result of deliberate actions and policies that have built a possessive investment in whiteness over centuries.

3. Civil Rights Laws Undermined by White Resistance and Disavowal

At every stage over the past fifty years, whites have responded to civil rights laws with coordinated collective politics characterized by resistance, refusal, and renegotiation.

Laws without enforcement. Despite landmark legislation like the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the stated goals of ending discrimination have been consistently thwarted. Weak enforcement mechanisms, lack of political will, and active resistance have rendered many laws ineffective.

Resistance, refusal, renegotiation. White opposition to civil rights has followed a pattern:

• Resistance: Initial opposition and delay tactics (e.g., "all deliberate speed" in Brown v. Board).
• Refusal: Outright non-compliance or finding loopholes (e.g., FHA continuing discriminatory practices after Shelley v. Kraemer).
• Renegotiation: Weakening laws or shifting focus to "reverse discrimination" claims (e.g., limitations on punitive damages in Fair Housing Act).

Protecting white expectations. Judicial decisions, particularly since the 1970s, have increasingly protected the "settled expectations" and group interests of whites, often applying strict scrutiny to policies designed to remedy past discrimination while ignoring systemic disadvantages faced by minorities. This has turned anti-subjugation laws into tools perceived as discriminatory against whites.

4. Racial Inequality Manifests Across Housing, Wealth, Health, and Justice

The persistence of residential segregation, educational inequality, environmental racism, and employment discrimination makes a mockery of the promises of fairness and equality inscribed within civil rights laws.

Unequal life chances. The possessive investment in whiteness creates vastly different outcomes across racial groups in fundamental areas of life. This isn't just about income; the disparity in accumulated wealth is far greater.

Concrete disparities:

• Wealth: White families have significantly higher net worth and financial assets, largely due to inherited wealth and home equity appreciation in segregated markets.
• Housing: Minorities face higher costs, limited choices, and predatory lending, hindering asset accumulation.
• Health: Minorities experience disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards and receive less preventive and remedial medical care, leading to lower life expectancies and higher rates of chronic diseases.
• Justice: Minorities are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement, receive harsher sentences, and face systemic biases in the criminal justice system.

Unearned disadvantages. These disparities are not due to individual failings but are the direct result of systemic barriers and discriminatory practices that impose artificial impediments on communities of color while providing unearned advantages to whites.

5. Immigrant Scapegoating Reinforces White Privilege and Divides Workers

Blaming the state’s fiscal woes on immigrants rather than taking responsibility for the ruinous effects of a decade and a half of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy coupled with disinvestment in education and infrastructure enabled the state’s political leaders and wealthy citizens to divert attention away from their own failures.

Diversionary tactics. Politicians and elites often use immigrants as scapegoats for economic problems caused by their own policies (e.g., tax cuts for the wealthy, disinvestment). This diverts anger away from those in power and towards vulnerable populations.

Exploiting vulnerability. Demonizing immigrants, particularly undocumented workers, creates a climate of fear that benefits employers. It discourages low-wage workers from organizing or demanding better wages and conditions, ensuring a cheap and exploitable labor force. This benefits wealthy consumers and businesses.

Dividing the working class. Anti-immigrant rhetoric often targets racialized immigrants (Latinos, Asians), sometimes pitting them against other minority groups or working-class whites who might otherwise be potential allies in struggles for better wages and conditions for all. This reinforces the possessive investment in whiteness by offering white workers a symbolic advantage over racialized immigrants.

6. Whiteness, War, and National Identity Intersect to Obscure Class

By encoding the possessive investment in whiteness within national narratives of male heroism and patriarchal protection, Reagan and his allies mobilized a crossclass coalition around the premise that the declines in life chances and opportunities in the United States, the stagnation of real wages, the decline of basic services and infrastructure resources, and the increasing social disintegration stemmed not from the policies of big corporations and their neoliberal and neoconservative allies in government, but from the harm done to the nation by the civil rights, antiwar, feminist, and gay liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Patriotism as a racialized performance. National identity and patriotism are often constructed in ways that reinforce whiteness, masculinity, and heterosexuality. Narratives of male heroism and patriarchal protection are used to create a sense of national unity and obligation.

Obscuring economic decline. This racialized patriotism is used to explain away economic problems like wage stagnation and deindustrialization. Instead of blaming corporate policies, these issues are framed as consequences of challenges to traditional hierarchies by civil rights, feminist, and antiwar movements.

War as spectacle. Military actions and patriotic displays become spectacles that compensate for a loss of individual and collective power in an increasingly unequal society. They offer a sense of purpose and connection, often focusing on elite warriors rather than citizen soldiers, and promoting aggressive, regressive desires.

7. Cultural Narratives and Disavowal Perpetuate Racism

It is not true that people become liars without knowing it. A liar always knows that he is lying, and that is why all liars travel in packs: in order to be reassured that the judgment day will never come for them.

Hiding in plain sight. Racism often operates through disavowal – denying racist intent while implementing policies with clear racial consequences. This allows perpetrators to escape responsibility and maintain a self-image of innocence.

Self-serving narratives. Dominant cultural narratives, from historical accounts to popular media, often perpetuate myths that protect white privilege. They may:

• Relegate racism to the past or to individual "bad apples."
• Blame victims for their own disadvantages.
• Portray whites as victims of "reverse discrimination."
• Ignore systemic structures of inequality.

Maintaining the lie. Those who benefit from the possessive investment in whiteness often collaborate to maintain these narratives. They need each other to reinforce the "lie" that their advantages are earned and that racial inequality is natural or due to the failings of others.

8. Beyond the Black-White Binary: Interethnic Dynamics and Alliances

All communities of color suffer from the possessive investment in whiteness, but not in the same way.

Complex racial landscape. While the black-white binary is central to understanding U.S. racism, it doesn't capture the full complexity. All communities of color are racialized and suffer from white supremacy, but their experiences differ based on history, immigration status, and specific forms of discrimination.

Antagonism and alliance. Relationships between communities of color are not monolithic. They can involve competition for scarce resources, sometimes leading to antagonism. However, shared experiences with racialization and discrimination also create opportunities for unexpected alliances and panethnic solidarity.

Learning from difference. The struggles of different racialized groups offer unique insights into the nature of power and resistance. Understanding these diverse experiences is crucial for building effective antiracist coalitions that move beyond simplistic binaries and address the intersectional nature of identity and oppression.

9. Antiracist Struggle Requires Acknowledging Whiteness and Building Coalitions

The problem with white people is not our whiteness, but our possessive investment in it.

Facing the problem. White people cannot effectively combat racism without acknowledging their own possessive investment in whiteness. This means recognizing the unearned privileges and advantages derived from systemic discrimination, not just individual prejudice.

Beyond guilt. Acknowledging this investment is not about fostering guilt but about understanding how inequality works and taking responsibility for dismantling the systems that perpetuate it. It requires moving beyond disavowal and confronting the historical and contemporary realities of racialized power.

Building solidarity. Effective antiracist work requires coordinated collective action and interethnic coalitions. It means uniting people across racial, gender, and class lines based on shared interests in social justice and a commitment to dismantling the possessive investment in whiteness for the benefit of all.

Last updated: May 22, 2025