Overview

What does it mean to be young, American, and white at the dawn of the twenty-first century? By exploring this question and revealing the everyday social processes by which high school students define white identities, Pamela Perry offers much-needed insights into the social construction of race and whiteness among youth. Through ethnographic research and in-depth interviews of students in two demographically distinct U.S. high schools-one suburban and predominantly white; the other urban, multiracial, and minority white-Perry shares students' candour about race and self-identification. By examining the meanings students attached (or didn't attach) to their social lives and everyday cultural practices, including their taste in music and clothes, she shows that the ways white students defined white identity were not only markedly different between the two schools but were considerably diverse and ambiguous within them as well. Challenging reductionist notions of whiteness and white racism, this study suggests how we might go ""beyond whiteness"" to new directions in antiracist activism and school reform. Shades of White is emblematic of an emerging second wave of whiteness studies that focuses on the racial identity of whites. It will appeal to scholars and students of anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies, as well as to those involved with high school education and antiracist activities.

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9780822328926

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Reviews

In an overwhelmingly white country being white used to be seen as just being part of the majority, just a normal American. But how will our children think about it in schools where they will increasingly confront more and more students of other racial and ethnic identities? This book offers a sensitive and fascinating exploration of that question from the state at the cusp of that demographic revolution, California. Perry frames vital issues of integration and equity that demand leadership from the nation's educators not just for the sake of minority students, but to prepare whites to become a successful minority in a workable multiracial society. -Gary Orfield, Harvard University This book will widely influence current studies of race and whiteness and of high schools as institutions recreating cultural norms and identities. Perry's notion of the 'multi-racial' self is profound and will help reconfigure the way racial identities are debated and understood. - John Hartigan Jr., University of North Texas

Author Information

Pamela Perry is Assistant Professor of Community Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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