Understanding The White Veil:

The Barriers Between White Privilege and Race Relations

By Karl Sather

Minnesota State University, Mankato

Prepared for Sociology 495: Senior Seminar

Dr. Afroza Anwary

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Table of Contents

Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3

I. Research Purpose ----------------------------------------------------------Page 4

II. Theoretical Background: White Privilege ----------------------------- Page 4

Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 5

I. Theoretical Contributions-------------------------------------------------Page 11

Review of the Literature----------------------------------------------------------------Page 5

Conceptualization------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 16

I. Racial Hegemony-----------------------------------------------------------Page 17

II. The White Veil--------------------------------------------------------------Page 18

Findings -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 18

I. White Privilege--------------------------------------------------------------Page 19

II. Colorblindness---------------------------------------------------------------Page 19

III. Racial Hegemony------------------------------------------------------------Page 20

Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 20

References ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 23

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It is August 9th, 2014 and it’s a bright and sunny day. You and a friend decide to go to the

convenience store to acquire provisions for the day, despite your lack of money. Since you have no

money, you and your friend decide to steal the items you desire. All you manage to get away with is a

pack of cigarillos because the storeowner has spotted you and called the police.

You run from the store and make it a block away before a police officer encounters you about

three minutes later. An argument ensues, and five minutes later, you are face down on the pavement

with nine bullets in your person. Life oozes out of you onto the pavement and you are confused how this

is happening. The last thing you see before life is devoid of your body is red asphalt, and a white police

officer calling for an ambulance with an unloaded gun in his hand.

After you’re gone, your mother witnesses something horrific: an entire Eurocentric nation’s

news outlets are attempting to justify this murder by offering conflicting reports of what happened. The

discourse that ensues is filled with assumptions, racism, apartheid, and white news officials debating

whether or not this was a racially biased act, while claiming we live in a post-racial society.

Though this story seems nothing more than fictitious when spelled out in the terms used above,

this was what Michael Brown lived and died through, and how a nation’s collective thought was shrink

wrapped with delusions of colorblindness, white privilege and post-racial discourse in the events of

Michael Brown’s death (Brown 2014).

Ferguson, Missouri, the location of this incident, was transformed by the events that ensued

between Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown (Brown 2014). Michael Brown’s death incited

arguably the most important social movement of this millennium so far. Protests calling for racial

equality and the abolishment of institutionalized racism within the police force in Ferguson and the rest

of the nation were culminated by a distinct phrase: Black Lives Matter (Pulliam-Moore and Myers 2014).

The phrase Black Lives Matter alludes to the ideology that the black community deserves to be treated

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the same in terms of worth and how incidences such as Michael Brown are viewed by the white

community and the United States as a whole.

The interaction of the white community on discussion boards of online periodicals pertaining to

the Ferguson protests and the events that lead to Michael Brown’s death allude to some of the barriers

that prevent the white community from fully understanding race relations. “It’s in [black people’s]

genes. Now police have a real reason to start shooting them,” one said about the protests. “Typical

response by blacks. No morals, no character, no sense. They are bringing our beloved country to moral

and economic brankruptcy (sic),” said another (Thorsen and Giegerich 2014).

These responses are filled with coded racism, or racially inflammatory statements hidden behind

seemingly ambiguous statements, that dehumanizes the black community as a whole and blames the

black community for institutionalized racism in the United States. The responses are also filled with

white privilege, a concept Peggy McIntosh defines as a “weightless backpack of special provisions,” or

advantages that others do not have that are bestowed upon a white individual due to their skin color

(McIntosh, 1989). The white individuals deployed their privileges in the online discussion boards by

using vehemently racist language that was widely accepted by others on the page. The white

commentators also did not have to worry that they would be persecuted because of their race, or would

have discriminatory phrases angrily hurled at them in response to their comments.

In subsequent sections of this research, barriers that prevent the white community from

engaging in race relations in an accurate, clear, and informed manor will be examined in depth, such as

the concept of white privilege, colorblindness, and racial hegemony.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why the white community is unable to fully

understand the incidences of racially biased policing and the violence that ensues on the part of police

officers due to so. Due to such, the question that will be guiding the research is as follows: what keeps

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the white community in the United States from understanding, engaging in, and advocating fairly when

it comes to racial conflict?

Methodology

The current research followed a meta-analysis format, wherein research studies were accessed

and retrieved from online databases. ProQuest and Sociological Abstracts databases were heavily

utilized in the search for secondary datasets to be explored and analyzed. Ten academic, peer-reviewed

journal articles were specifically sought out for their credibility and generalizability. Any and all articles

utilized within this research were to be published after 2005.

Keywords used to accrue articles were “white privilege,” “race relations,” and “hegemony.”

Abstracts were then scanned to determine if they related to the guiding question of the research: what

keeps the white community in the United States from understanding, engaging in, and advocating fairly

when it comes to racial conflict? Those relating to, or falling within, the parameters of the research

question were then deemed acceptable by the researcher and were utilized within the research.

Accepted articles were read and summarized within an annotated bibliography to determine

common themes between studies and the use of theory within each study. Upon analysis of the

secondary dataset acquired from the body of literature, concepts were synthesized, grouped, and

defined to determine their applicability to the current study and the layout of said study. The results of

said analysis are now to be discussed.

Review of the Literature

A mounting body of literature has come as of late examining the barriers that disallow the white

community from accurately and fairly engaging in racial discourse. While empirical research has varied

in its methodology to examine the effects of these barriers, the majority consensus is that white

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privilege, colorblindness, and racial hegemony is a salient category for the outgroup, but an invisible

mechanism of privilege for those belonging to the white community (Ford and Airihenbuwa 2010;

Brown 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009).

Seeking to explain why race is a salient category for minority groups but an unimportant one to

a privileged group, Grossman and Charmaraman (2009) examined the role of racial identity in

adolescent youth. The researchers aimed to reduce the colorblindness that is inherent White privilege

by exploring how White adolescents viewed their racial identity. Grossman and Charmaraman (2009)

employed a grounded theory approach to answer the following questions: Do white adolescents who

are a numerical minority in their school view race as an important category compared to those who are

a majority in their school? Does socioeconomic class have an effect on the importance of racial identity?

What themes arise when White adolescent youth are confronted about racial and ethnic identity? Does

the school they go to influence the answers to these questions?

Grounded theory approach uses inductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning to explain

or answer leading questions that guide the research. This methodology is devoid of a hypothesis and

uses the dataset to develop a theory of its own to explain the phenomenon being studied. The data is

analyzed and coded into distinct phrases that allows the researcher to develop a theory from the ground

up that can be used to frame the data and subsequently the research (Grossman and Charmaraman

2009)

Concepts being examined in this study are White Privilege and White Racial Identity. Grossman

and Charmaraman (2009) define White privilege as colorblindness or, the acceptance that we are all

humans, and racial categories do not matter nor hold importance in the construction of identity. White

racial identity was defined as a category that many see as “normal” or “default” and other racial

categories are built upon whiteness (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009). These are strong concepts to

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study as they have been revealed as meaningful categories in previous studies on white privilege (Ford

and Airihenbuwa 2010; Brown 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009), and discovering their manifestations is

paramount to mitigating the social ills that follow privilege (Hankins, Cohran, Derickson 2012).

The sample in this study was created using a secondary dataset that analyzed adolescents’ racial

and ethnic identities of monoracial and mixed-raced youth. The current study focused on the 781 White

respondents and their responses (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009). The respondents were gathered

through a snowball sampling technique wherein 3 schools were contacted and subsequently agreed to

allow their student body to participate through passive informed consent wherein parental permission

forms were disbursed. The survey administered gathered demographic information such as age, gender,

mother and father’s education levels, as well as perceived importance of racial-ethnic identification, and

the importance of his or her ancestral background (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009). Qualitative

analyses were then deployed to assess the influences of parental education, central location, and being

of minority/majority status in their school on the importance of a racial and ethnic identity.

Though this study shows a broad range of importance placed upon white identity, it was found

that concurrent with past research, white children are likely to distance themselves from their racial

identification, instead focusing on ethnic origins (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009). The degree of

importance instilled upon race as identity was inversely related with the level of education their parents

achieved. In other words, the higher the level of education, the lower the importance one places on race

as an identifier. Finally, the situational context of minority/majority status within their high school did

not significantly impact perceptions of the meaningfulness of race.

The method of using secondary data to determine the importance of racial-ethnic identity

among white youth was ill founded. The current study is limited by the fact that the respondents

participating in the secondary dataset were primed by being told that the study had to do with “how

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people form opinions of who they are.” The authors should have deployed a mutually exclusive

questionnaire wherein the respondents were told the study had to do with the construction of race in

society. The respondents would have then been attentive to race as a meaningful category and may

have given more thought to the meaningfulness of their responses dealing with racial identity, rather

than dismissing the question altogether.

It is well documented that when white individuals are confronted with the illegitimate

advantages due to their racial category, the individual will experience a level of discomfort that likely

arises from a sense of cognitive dissonance. Van Wormer and Falkner (2012) aimed to discover how

White individuals grapple with the advantages they have earned from possessing Whiteness.

Van Wormer and Falkner (2012) used the transcripts from a previous study that examined the

personal narratives of housemaids who were a part of the Great Migration. 30 African American women

who worked for White families within the period of 1920 to 1960 were interviewed about their

experiences. 23 White women who had a Maid live in their household were also interviewed. These

women were interviewed about female relationships and bonding across racial lines.

The authors of the current study were interested in figuring out why there was a striking

reluctance to participate in said study. The authors presumed that the reason being was that they were

aware to the oppression and bigotry they were perpetuating through having a Maid and aimed at

figuring out how these women reconciled the negotiation between the ideologies of today and the

values of the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. How did they categorize these oppressive norms of

segregation with their values of today? Have they changed? The researchers contacted the respondents

in this secondary data set and provided them with a list of open-ended questions aimed at clarifying

aspects of their interview being analyzed. Interviews were completed in person, over the telephone, or

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were submitted through e-mail in written form. The results were then analyzed, coded, and searched for

coping strategies employed by the respondents.

Van Wormer and Falkner (2012) found that the respondents in this study exhibited symptoms of

a psychological theory known as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance, as defined by the authors,

is “the state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, beliefs, attitudes,

opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent with one another,” (van Wormer and Falkner 2012).

People desire to have a consistency between their moral standards and their behavior. When they are

confronted that their behaviors, they are faced with anxiety, and are forced to reconcile. It was found

that respondents in the current study coped with their situations through: denial, defensiveness, guilt,

providing care for another, gift giving, blaming the victim, defiance of cultural norms, and becoming an

ally using political means (van Wormer and Falkner 2012).

This study is useful for explaining the angst felt by the White community when they are

confronted with the privileges they posses. Van Wormer and Falkner (2012) use words from real people

to provide real reconciliations for the social ills they perpetuated through participating and subsequently

benefitting from segregation.

The secondary dataset and use of personal narratives by van Wormer and Falkner (2012) do

indeed have their limitations. Personal narratives and the use of a secondary dataset cannot be entirely

generalizable, due to the small number of individuals involved and their inability to represent an entire

population. Though personal narratives provide an in-depth, personalized view of whiteness and the

discomfort of being confronted with illegitimate advantages gained because of so, it should be brought

to the forefront that the women involved in this study may not hold the same viewpoints nor deploy the

same methods of negotiation with their privilege as would other white individuals in society.

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Branscombe, Shmitt, and Schiffhauer’s (2007) research extends the mechanisms employed to

defend racial attitudes in connection to White privilege. Branscombe et al. (2007) aimed to discover

responses White Americans have when confronted with the illegitimate advantages they posses due to

their racial identity, or White privilege.

Two experiments were employed to measure the perceptions white Americans have of white

privilege and its consequences involved with modern racism. Experiment one consisted of white

undergraduates (93 Females, 96 Males) who were randomly assigned to one of three conditional tests

designed to manipulate perceptions of the ingroups advantages. In the privilege or disadvantage group,

respondents were asked to list the ways they were privileged or disadvantaged. The control conditions

were simply asked to write about their life experiences. Upon completion of the thought-listing task,

respondents were asked to then fill out a Modern Racism Scale, which asked whether or not the

disadvantages Blacks face were justifiable (Branscombe et al. 2007).

Experiment two consisted of White undergraduates (156 Females and 123 Males) who were

asked to complete the same thought listing task above, but instead were asked to complete measures of

political orientation, White racial identification, and a Modern Racism Scale. Independent coders

assigned each thought listed into a “thought category” created by the coders then coded results from

both studies. The racism, political orientation and identification scales were assigned Likert Scale value

numbers to assess the degree of racism and racial identity. The results were then regressed and cross

tabulated to determine the effect of identity on thoughts of racism (Branscombe et al. 2007).

In experiment one, it was found that when respondents were confronted with the advantages of

a White racial identity displayed greater levels of modern racism than those who were told to focus on

the disadvantages. Experiment two found that racism was only increased for those who strongly

identified with their racial category (Branscombe et al. 2007).

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Social learning theory was implicit in this study, as well as the analysis of the data collected from

respondents. Social learning theory assumes that we model our behavior off of another in society,

whether it is a mentor, an institution, or the combination of both. Applying social learning theory to the

context of this study, whites have learned that their status in society and the advantages they gain from

it are normalized and are rarely confronted. The critique of this study lies in the theoretical framework,

in that theory was not implicit. The results of Branscombe et al. (2007) research would have been better

disseminated using Feminist or Critical Race Theory, due to the fact that each theory offers a multi-

faceted historical explanation as to why each respondent displayed greater levels of racism.

Feminist theory places a high value on the intersectionality, or the multitude of variables such as

socialization and identity, that shape our view of the world and thus our interaction with it. The use of

intersectionality would have allowed for the variables Branscombe et al. (2007) used in their survey to

be better elaborated and applied to the construction of a white identity. Critical Race Theory on the

other hand uses a historical comparative analysis that assumes racism is built into the institutions of our

society, such as the institutions that influenced the respondents, due to the United State’s history of

racial discrimination and how the United States directly benefitted from racial discrimination, which

discourages the abolishment of racism due to the advantages that are harbored to the power elite that

facilitate the decision making process in the United States.

The facilitators of white privilege and their perpetuations have been discussed, but what are the

consequences of the colorblind privilege white privilege elicits from the white community? Hankins et al.

(2012) research discusses White privilege in practice and the outcomes of such.

Hankins et al. (2012) examined the events that occurred within the vibrant night club scene of

Buckhead, Atlanta. Buckhead was an overwhelmingly affluent White neighborhood that housed a major

hub of nightlife in Atlanta that was very popular with the Black community. In the early 2000s, the area

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was demonized and deligitamitized by the White community, who would have rather seen a shopping

center in place of such a nuisance.

Two concepts were present in the current study: White privilege and Racialization. White

privilege was defined by Hankins et al. (2012) as a hegemonic formation wherein the accrual of social

powers is given to white individuals, while simultaneously delegitimizing race as a meaningful self-

identifying category. Racialization was defined by Hankins et al. (2012) as a consequence of white

privilege, creating an ignored category of race that has all of its power stripped from and given to white

privilege through a hegemonic exchange of power.

This study aimed to use these two concepts coupled with social learning theory to explain the

destruction of Buckhead’s nightclub scene, which was flourishing, in exchange for an elite level shopping

center, which Hankins et al. (2012) described as an “extension of Rodeo Drive.” The authors of this study

used a blend of qualitative interviewing, meta-analysis, and ethnographic research to collect data. In

2008, using a semi-structured interview process, the authors interviewed residents, civic and business

leaders, a former nightclub operator, and city and state government officials of Buckhead. The

researchers also happened to live in Buckhead, Atlanta for quite some time, which facilitated formalized

current-event knowledge within this study. Finally, the researchers scanned newspaper, magazine, and

editorial articles that dated from 2000 to 2010. The researchers also searched advertisements and

reader comments from 2000 to 2010 to get an idea of how the public engaged in racial discourses. All

data was analyzed and coded for further analysis. Information pertaining to the collection of

respondents and the sample size is unknown at this time (Hankins et al. 2012).

Hankins et al. (2012) concluded in their study that, just as race is a social construction, so too is

White privilege. Their fluid definitions and its effect on the political economy has a prominent effect on

special practices, such as the reconstruction of Buckhead for the White community’s gains. White

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privilege was present in Buckhead through the presence of CEOs, wealthy donors, property ownership,

and the presence of Jim Crow laws which allowed for a property to be defined as “White” or “Colored”

(Hankins et al. 2012).

The evolution of Buckhead included the influx and the consequences of white privilege, but also

a flourishing, profitable nightclub scene that brought in nonwhite patrons, and also a rash of violent

incidences. White privilege was then employed to racialize the area and subsequently demonize the

area, in attempt to claim ownership of the area and build a high-class shopping district, which was

successful (Hankins et al. 2012).

Ford and Collins (2010) attempted to provide a remedy, or rather a combatant, to the

oppression and discrimination that is inherent to White privilege, which was the case in Buckhead. Ford

and Collins applied the use of Critical Race Theory to a previous study conducted to examine racism in

HIV testing and diagnosis.

Inherent to Critical Race Theory is ordinariness, or the belief that racism is integral to our

society; race consciousness, or acknowledgement that race is an influential factor in everyday life;

“centering the margins,” or focusing on the perspectives of a marginalized group; and praxis, or a

process wherein the knowledge gained from empirical research, theory and personal knowledge all

inform one another (Ford and Collins 2010). In other words, Critical Race Theory is an interactive

methodology that helps practitioners be aware of the racism marginalized groups face. This awareness

thus helps combat racism through consciousness of equality. Also, activism and research go hand in

hand with this theory, as Critical Race Theory encourages institutions to transform hierarchies that were

found through research (Ford and Collins 2010).

To facilitate a meta-theoretical-analysis, the current study used a secondary dataset from a

previous study on HIV testing in a neighborhood with high prevalence of HIV that sought to examine

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whether factors of racism presented the Black community from readily obtaining HIV testing from the

CDC. 400 Black Americans were enrolled in STD testing at a local public heath clinic. To control for the

perceived amount of racism, participants were asked about the amount of racism they perceived while

in the clinical setting and those perceptions were then cross-tabulated with the amount of segregation

in the respondent’s neighborhoods. The authors of the current study applied Critical Race Theory to the

data by manipulating the variables controlled by defining race not as a population characteristic, but

rather as a socially constructed category. Furthermore, the authors encouraged and brought to the

forefront the racial concepts of the study, such as perceived racism, the goals of a healthcare institution

which has a long history of racial bias, and who was administering the study (non African-Americans). In

doing so, the authors used the current study and Critical Race Theory’s philosophical underpinnings to

encourage health care practitioners to be aware of and strive for equity in their practice, diagnosis, and

treatment.

Ford and Collins (2010) did a very thorough job in their meta-analysis of a previous study in that

they provided a realistic remedy to the racism found in the dataset of a previous study done on racism in

medical practice. Critical Race Theory was appropriately used to provide mitigation in a real-world

example of racism. Critical Race Theory can and should also be used to mitigate the manifestation,

perpetuation, and effects of White privilege that were discussed in the introduction and review of the

literature of this paper.

The articles discussed in this review of the literature provide a backdrop as to how White

privilege presents a multitude of barriers that prevent the White community from fully understanding

and engaging in race relations in an equitable manor.

Defensive techniques employed by White Americans depict a defense of racial identity and

provide a glimpse into racial dynamics and their fluidity of importance (Ford and Airihenbuwa 2010;

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Brown 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009). When privileges are earned, but not confronted, race is a

meaningless category due to the side effect of colorblind humanism. Conversely, Branscombe et al.

(2007) proved that race does indeed become a meaningful category when the White community is told

of the illegitimate advantages they harbor due to their skin color (van Wormer and Falkner 2012).

The research sheds light on the barriers that are presented by White privilege that prevent the

White community from fully understanding the hegemonic exchange of White privilege and its

consequences (Hankins et al. 2012; Ford and Collins 2010). These research papers could have and should

be analyzed with a critical feminist lens to reveal the true depths of the power dynamics that are

intrinsic to White privilege and their historical underpinnings.

Many of these articles also face a limitation, in that they only examine race relations between

the White and Black communities. These articles, specifically Ford and Collins (2010) and Branscombe et

al. (2007) would have been better suited using a secondary dataset that marginalized populations in

general, as to get a generalizable scope of hegemonic exchange between races. Furthermore, Critical

Race Theory would have been better employed in Hankins et al. (2012) to describe and offer a solution

to further gentrification of Black neighborhoods for business interests.

Methodology

The current research followed a meta-analysis format, wherein research studies were accessed

and retrieved from online databases. ProQuest and Sociological Abstracts databases were heavily

utilized in the search for secondary datasets to be explored and analyzed. Ten academic, peer-reviewed

journal articles were specifically sought out for their credibility and generalizability. Any and all articles

utilized within this research were to be published after 2005.

Keywords used to accrue articles were “white privilege,” “race relations,” and “hegemony.”

Abstracts were then scanned to determine if they related to the guiding question of the research: what

15

keeps the white community in the United States from understanding, engaging in, and advocating fairly

when it comes to racial conflict? Those relating to, or falling within, the parameters of the research

question were then deemed acceptable by the researcher and were utilized within the research.

Accepted articles were read and summarized within an annotated bibliography to determine

common themes between studies and the use of theory within each study. Upon analysis of the

secondary dataset acquired from the body of literature, concepts were synthesized, grouped, and

defined to determine their applicability to the current study and the layout of said study. The results of

said analysis will now be discussed.

Conceptualization

It is clear that white racial identity prevents the white community in the United States from

accurately engaging in racial discourse, and it should also be clear that there are real consequences that

target a specific racial category (Hankins et al. 2012; Brown 2014; Grossman and Charmaraman 2009).

The term Racial Hegemony would accurately describe the power dynamics that go into the formation of

race. The theory of Cultural Hegemony developed by Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci describes, that

through a process of coercion and force, how a multicultural society is able to be taken control of by a

dominant culture that imposes their cultural norms as a standard across a society, while simultaneously

devaluing the norms of other cultures within a society (Durst, 2005). The construction of race within a

society and the value of such follows a similar process. As was discussed in the review of the literature, it

is taught to the public at an early age through primary and secondary socialization that certain races are

more important than others (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009). This is a

process of hegemony, or an exchange of information shaped by the power elite in a society, that values

one race and simultaneously devalues all others.

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The concept of racial hegemony would readily explain how commentators participating in the

online discussion section of periodicals would assume the black community “deserves” to be persecuted

by the racially biased criminal justice system. Within the discussion board posts, the black community

was purposely dehumanized and devalued with language that utilized coded racism (Thorsen and

Giegerich 2014).

Social learning theory can be used to explain how this is possible. Throughout our primary

socialization, we are taught that the heroes of our country are majority Caucasian and rarely are

confronted with a textbook that focuses on how the black community or other diverse populations

directly contributed to the success of society. Thus, the use of social learning theory would explain how

whiteness is the “default” race in society, and all others are built upon this default category, thus

devaluing the black community and justifying the actions of Officer Darren Wilson and the Ferguson

Police Department as a whole in the wake of the Black Lives Matter Protests (Ford and Airihenbuwa

2010; Brown 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009; Grossman and Charmaraman 2009).

W.E.B. DuBois introduced and coined two concepts in his work The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

First, Double Consciousness refers to the dual processes of thought that a socially aware black individual

must use to successfully interact in society. There are two defining moments in a black individual’s life

that will shape this dual consciousness- the moment they realize their identity as a black individual in

society, and the moment they realize this is going to become a problem that will plague them for the

rest of their lives (DuBois 1903). Thus, comes the dual consciousness of not only being a citizen in

America, but also a black citizen. Second, the Black Veil was introduced to describe how the black

community is unable to accurately view and subsequently define their self outside of the negative

expectations that are convoluted into their person by a Eurocentric America (DuBois 1903).

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Similar, but far from equal, is the white community’s inability to see America as it truly is: a

diverse nation filled with differing nationalities, ethnicities, races, and cultural practices. Because of so,

the term White Veil is borrowed from DuBois Black Veil in an attempt to explain the inability of the

white community to view events involving racial discourse in an accurate manner. The white individual

follows a path similar to the black individual when discovering their worth. First, the white individual

learns they are white and simultaneously learns that this racial definition supersedes any meaningful

defining category they will use to identify themselves with (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009;

Branscombe et al. 2007). Second, the white individual learns this is anything but a problem, as they will

enjoy a plethora of unearned benefits because of their racial category (McIntosh 1989; Hankins et al.

2012; Ford and Collins 2010; Branscombe et al. 2007). Because of the privilege a white individual is

granted, the white community has a whole is in possession of a Veil themselves that disallows them

from accurately engaging in racial discourse. In the case of the events surrounding Michael Brown, the

white community in the United States was unable to truly examine the scope of ramifications the black

community faces on a daily basis due to their skin color, and their subsequent persecution by the

criminal justice system because of so (Thorsen and Giegerich 2014).

Findings- Contributing Factors to the White Veil

The purpose of this paper was fueled by the events in Ferguson, Missouri that surrounded the

murder of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson. Intrigued by how a nation could be so easily divided

in a seemingly obvious case of murder, and how a majority of white people spoken to about this

incident would rather wash their hands of the situation than to engage in a discussion about the event,

these factors shaped the guiding question of the current research. What keeps the white community in

the United States from understanding, engaging in, and advocating fairly when it comes to racial

conflict?

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Though the research articles utilized within the current research do not specifically address

police brutality between a white male officer and a male black youth, it is clear that there are a number

of barriers that prevent the white community in the United States from willingly participating in racial

discourse in an accurate, informed manner (McIntosh 1989; Hankins et al. 2012; Ford and Collins 2010;

Branscombe et al. 2007). These factors come together to create a cloud of sorts, or a White Veil, that

prevent the white community from clearly analyzing racial discourse.

The first and most prevalent barrier contributing to the White Veil in American society is the

concept of white privilege (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009; McIntosh 1989; Hankins et al. 2012). In

essence, whiteness grants a white individual with a “weightless backpack of special provisions” that

allow the individual to enjoy a number of privileges throughout their lifetime- advantages that are

unearned and bestowed upon an individual due to their skin color (McIntosh 1989). These advantages

cloud a white individual’s view of racial discourse, because they are not deprived of taken-for-granted

advantages due to their race (Branscombe et al. 2007; McIntosh 1989; Hankins et al. 2012). In the case

of the events surrounding Michael Brown, white America simply could not see how race played into the

event, since it was one human shooting another, and it was justified because he committed a crime prior

to being murdered. This leads to the second barrier found in the research.

Colorblindness is a theme that was prevalent in many of the secondary datasets utilized

(Branscombe et al. 2007; Hankins et al. 2012; Ford and Airihenbuwa 2010; Brown 2009; Esposito and

Finley 2009). Colorblindness is the idea that we are all human, so any defining categories beyond being a

human simply do not matter (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009). By believing this notion, one

undermines the salient categories of race, culture, and ethnicity that are prevalent on a daily basis for a

nonwhite individual, because each of these factors shapes the individual’s lived experiences and how

they are viewed in a particular society. If one were to view the incident in Ferguson, Missouri with a

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colorblind lens, they would miss and subsequently undermine the whole point of the protests and the

uproar following Michael Brown’s death- he was persecuted and subsequently killed due to the “threat”

posed by him being a black man. Being persecuted or treated differently by a police officer due to skin

color is something a white man or woman would likely never have to experience for a majority of their

life, thus disconnecting them from truly understanding what it feels like to be a nonwhite individual in a

Eurocentric United States (McIntosh 1989).

The final contributing factor to the White Veil is the concept of Racial Hegemony posed earlier in

this paper. Throughout life, especially during primary socialization, we learn that whiteness is the

“default” racial category of sorts, and all other races are built upon whiteness (Grossman and

Charmaraman 2009). By learning this, a hegemonic power exchange is employed that places the

importance of white as a racial identity above all others, thus undermining all other races in terms of

importance and their contribution to society. This is why the phrase Black Lives Matter arose. Black Lives

Matter brings Racial Hegemony to the forefront of racial discourse and states that, despite what widely

held ideologies are prevalent in a given society, black lives are just as important as white ones, or any

other for that matter. Thus, when a white man, regardless of affiliation, murders a black man, it should

be held with the same importance as if the opposite was true.

Conclusion

Upon concluding this research, it is clear that there are a multitude of factors contributing to the

White Veil that prevents the white community in the United States from accurately participating in racial

discourse (Grossman and Charmaraman 2009; McIntosh 1989; Hankins et al. 2012; Branscombe et al.

2007; Ford and Airihenbuwa 2010; Brown 2009; Esposito and Finley 2009). More importantly, these

racial discourses are not to go away any time soon, and rather are going to become more and more

prevalent in the coming months.

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As racial discourse is becoming more prevalent in media outlets throughout the country, it is of

the utmost importance that the white community in the United States become aware of their White Veil

and the contributing factors: white privilege, colorblindness, and racial hegemony. As Branscombe et al.

(2007) found, if a white individual is confronted with their privilege, but feel they can do nothing with it,

racism will likely increase, and incidences of police murder among ethnic populations will continue to be

justified. This is why the white community must become aware of the privilege they possess, but

simultaneously realize that they have efficacy to aid the fight for racial equality, which could have

massive contributions to the racial equality movement (Branscombe et al. 2007).

The limitations in this study are presented by the lack of generalizable research within the

secondary dataset. Apart from the data used Branscombe et al. (2007) and Ford and Collins’ (2010)

research, sample sizes were far to small in their population to provide meaningful data that can be used

to generalize over time and space within the United States. Among these limitations within the

population is how socioeconomic status was measured and how it subsequently influenced

respondents’ contributions to the data. Researchers considering doing further research in this field

should look to Branscombe et al. (2007) method of collecting information on socioeconomic status by

asking for approximate annual income and weighing the response against median income within a given

capita. It is suggested that future studies also utilize a longitudinal approach to measure white privilege,

colorblindness, and thoughts of racial hegemony over time to see if the White Veil increases in

prevalence over time, or conversely decreases over time. The contributing factors that supplement or

mitigate the effects of the White Veil then should be examined to determine what factors must be

addressed in the future to allow white individuals to accurately participate in racial discourse, rather

than inaccurately participating and causing further social ill due to their inability to see the long ranging

effects of the privilege they posses (Hankins et al. 2012; Ford and Collins 2010).

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While I was completing the final stages of this research and subsequently the write up, Freddie

Gray was killed by the hands of the Baltimore Police Department on April 19th, 2015. Baltimore police

arrested Gray on April 12th during a routine dispatch call, and during the arrest, broke his neck. The

seven officers involved dragged Gray to a transport van, all the while ignoring his injuries, which lead to

fatal spinal cord injuries which Gray later died from (Baltimore Sun, 2015).

It is clear that institutionalized racism will continue to affect the black community at despairingly

large rates as compared to other racial and ethnic populations in the United States. Because of so, I call

for the use of critical race theory in future research, which not only uses a historical comparative

analysis to bring historical contributions of racism of modern day society to the forefront, but also

suggests ways this institutionalized racism be combatted (Ford and Collins 2010). White America can no

longer sit on the sidelines of racial conflict and allow it to be fought out by the victimized race. It has

become all but impossible to walk by a newsstand, television, or radio without hearing or seeing bits of

information pertaining to the growing number of Black Lives Matter protests. The white community can

no longer remain purposefully ignorant to the struggles nonwhites face in this society. The white

community must also realize that they hold tremendous power in this situation. Being a Eurocentric

nation which is largely dominated by white businessmen and politicians, this societal structure in the

United States was constructed by and for the white community. Because of so, white women and men

such as myself have the voice to make change due to the privileges we are granted, the life chances that

are all but handed to us in comparison, and the fact that white people will almost always have their

voice heard over that of a nonwhite individual (Ford and Collins 2010). It is time for white America to

educate itself to the social ills they unknowingly recreate by deploying their invisible mechanism of

privilege (Hankins et al. 2012; McIntosh 1989). While learning of privilege, white America must also

learn that there Is a tremendous amount of good that can be done with their privilege. If white America

stands with their black brothers and sisters, I see the chance for real change- real change that will be

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able to eliminate the Black and the White Veil alike that will allow for ethnic populations to live in a

society where they are not persecuted, nor living in an illusion of a colorblind, post-racial society.

References

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2. Pulliam-Moore, Charles and Margaret Meyers. 2014. “Timeline of Events in Ferguson.” Retrieved April 24th, 2015(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/timeline-events-

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Psychology 37(2):203-215.

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