1999/02/01 by Ronald L. Jackson · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Communication in Education and Healthcare #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Rhetoric and Communication Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00335639909384240
crossref issued 1999/02/01 · crossref published 1999/02/01 · crossref published-print 1999/02/01 · openalex publication_date 1999/02/01 · crossref created 2009/06/07 · crossref deposited 2021/10/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This study explores the role of communication in the strategic self‐definition of whiteness. The transcripts from two focus group interviews (with Whites from two Historically Black Universities) are used to map the discourses of “White” participants concerning the nature of whiteness. The maps, when analyzed, uncovered significant commentary about White space and White privilege. Five strategies of representation emerged from the discursive territories. They identify whiteness as: (1) incompletion, (2) uninterrogateable space, (3) metaphor for the universal insider, (4) guilty and fair space, and (5) situationally immutable. The results imply that the space that Whites occupy is unclearly constructed and defined, and therefore is enigmatic.