Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2015-7
Whither the White Working Class? A Comment on Khanna and Harris,“Discovering Race in a ‘Post-Racial’ World: Teaching Race through Primetime Television”
Even though I recognize the value of using the mass media to teach sociological concepts and reveal racial biases, I caution against the use of classroom exercises that are developed solely in the context of whiteness studies. Overarching statements of white privilege mask complex race-class interactions generally and the mass media’s stereotypical depictions of the white working class specifically. In this “conversation,” I explain why the use of the concept white privilege in and of itself obfuscates more than it reveals complex race-class interactions today.
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