The essentialism of whiteness: Abandoning empirical engagement

Abstract

Summary

This article examines social workers’ attention to privilege, white privilege, and oppression as ideological practice. It suggests alternative methods for accounting for troubles in social relations derived from ethnomethodology.

Findings

Although presented as progressive, the methods used by anti-racist social workers to account for interaction as organized by racism and privilege rely on practices for working up race and privilege isomorphic with those used by racists and white supremacists.

Applications

Alternative methods to account for troubles in relations are suggested which draw on an abiding attention to every-day socially organized practices.