The Whiteness Project

Inside The White/ Caucasian Box


The Whiteness Project created a documentary, which interviewed various white people asking them to discuss their racial identity as being white.  Each interview was only about a minute and a half, but the responses of some of the interviewees were very interesting.  Many of them said they felt no privilege for being white, or didn't consider being white an advantage to them at all.  Another common response that I noticed from some of the interviewees was that they felt at a disadvantage by being white.  Every interview ends with a statistic, or data point of some kind that shows that although these interviewees words seem out of the ordinary, they really are more common to mainstream Americans.

One man mentioned how despite his high scores on the test for a trade job, he was denied the job because "the business needed to fill the minority quota."  It was for this reason that he feels whites are now being discriminated against more than other minority groups.

Another man begins his interview by saying "Your color means absolutely nothing to me," and he goes on to say that he "does not by into the nonsense about discrimination."  This man was dressed in doctor/ nurse scrubs, which i found interesting because of the way he was responding to the interview.  It reminded me of one of our readings "The Culture of Power".  If this man is in fact a doctor or even a medical nurse, he experiences the privileges of being upper-class.  Often times, those  who are of high socioeconomic status have the ability to avoid or ignore racial issues.  This to me seemed like an odd response, especially because of the world we live in today.  I feel that no matter how hard you try to avoid talking about race or exposing yourself to it, in fact you cannot.  This man seems to be very ignorant to the idea of racism and discrimination.

A third man explains why he does not feel as though he has benefitted from being white.  He grew up in a poor family, with a father who worked in a factory until he lost his job.  However, despite his struggles growing up he discusses how he has finally begun to crawl out of that hole, with a well paying job of his own.  At the end of his interview a statistic stated that "53% of blacks born in the lowest 20% of income will remain in that category, compared to 33% of whites".  Before I even got to the end of this interview, I thought to myself how most times, whites are able to work their way up through the social class hierarchy whereas blacks are not.  Despite this man saying he did not feel as if he received any privileges from being white, his ability to work his way out of being in the lower social class is one in itself.

An interview with one woman brought up another interesting point, which I had not thought about.  She discusses how when you are talking with others about how they classify themselves, most do no say I am white.  The more common answer is Italian, English, Irish, French, etc.  The only time she considers herself "white" is when she is checking a box on some sort of government form.  All other times, she refers to herself, as do many others, in ethnic terms.

An interesting interview with another woman who has tattoos and piercings, brings up the issue of being discriminated against even if you are white.  She talks about how she feels discriminated against, as a white female, due to her visible tattoos, and piercings.  She feels as though she receives the same "stares and glares" as any other racial minority.  She does not think of herself as a normal white woman, she in fact considers herself to be a minority.

One interview really shocked me as I watched it.  It was a white man who did not feel as though he benefitted from being white, and as a result of the civil rights movement, other minorities receive more benefit than he does.  He then goes on to say "For some reason, some black people kind of hold on to the, uh, back in the day, the whole slave thing." When he said this I could not believe he referred to slavery as "the slave thing" as if it were not a huge part of our countries history.  His main argument is that "we" do not owe black people anything for slavery, because it did not involve them or even himself.  This was just a response I was not expecting to hear, but that shows the way this man, who is not unlike other whites, feels about race and discrimination.


As a viewer of these various interviews, I found this extremely interesting because there had never been anything done like it before.  Most times when race comes up as a topic of conversation, it is how minorities feel as though they are at a disadvantage compared to whites.  It is very rare, that whites are asked how they feel they are perceived.  This reminds me of "The Silenced Dialogue" reading we did in class.  Until this project started, there has not been many, if any, done like it.  Whites are not usually asked how they feel about the topic of race or how they feel they either benefit or do not benefit from being white.