Open AccessOn Being White: A Raw, Honest Conversation
Author(s) -
Allie Jane Bruce
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
children and libraries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2374-7641
pISSN - 1542-9806
DOI - 10.5860/cal.13n3.3
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , taboo , nobody , conversation , girl , foundation (evidence) , psychoanalysis , sociology , art , psychology , history , anthropology , developmental psychology , communication , chemistry , biochemistry , archaeology , computer science , gene , operating system
I’m white. But I didn’t start describing myself that way until adulthood. In fact, I doggedly avoided it. In high school, I once crossed out “white” and wrote “half Jewish” on a standardized test. I knew I was white, but I also knew thatit was not good to name whiteness. Black history, we could talk about, in Social Studies (during certain units). Latino cultures were celebrated (or, at least, acknowledged) in my Spanish classes. But the whiteness that served as the foundation for the other 99 percent of my life was taboo. Nobody ever said “as a white girl, I think . . .” or “white people like us . . .” in my (totallywhite) circles.