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The Melungeon Identity Movement and the Construction of Appalachian Whiteness
Author(s) -
Puckett Anita
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.131
Subject(s) - privilege (computing) , lexeme , identity (music) , white (mutation) , sociology , power (physics) , white privilege , gender studies , race (biology) , repertoire , movement (music) , object (grammar) , racism , linguistics , political science , law , aesthetics , art , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , literature , quantum mechanics , gene
Racial classification in the United States is ultimately binary, categorizing individuals as "white" or "nonwhite." How this binary system is discursively constituted depends upon the ways in which elements of a repertoire interconnect to distribute or consolidate power and privilege across discursive contexts. Circulation of the revitalized lexeme Melungeon as a valued "object" within Appalachian discourse reveals linguistic processes by which white racial privilege is constructed and expanded, mixed‐race classification excluded, and nonwhite disenfranchisement reproduced.