The ‘Other’ stares back

Abstract

Discussions of whiteness often focus on the ‘invisibility’ of whites. I suggest, though, that the situation of whites in non-white environments contributes a crucial dimension to concepts of whiteness. In particular, I examine the case of white Euro-American expatriates living in Jakarta. These corporate expatriates have been posted to Indonesia by their companies, and they often experience being ‘racially marked’ for the first time. This takes place through the ‘gaze of the Other’; being looked at by Indonesians in the street, and by being called bule, an Indonesian term for ‘white person’. While many regard these practices as unpleasant and offensive, expatriates are unwilling to acknowledge their political implications. They often refuse to recognize their status as a ‘race’, thus highlighting the persistence of the notion of whiteness as unmarked, even when confronted with situations which suggest otherwise.