“Whiteness studies,” a much-discussed new branch of ethnic studies, may help bridge the gap between the cultural left’s focus on identity and the traditional left’s emphasis on economic justice, writes Homi K. Bhabha, a professor of humanities at the University of Chicago.
On the one hand, whiteness studies draws on the work of Foucault in underscoring the privilege and power that derive from the nearly invisible, “natural” fact of white skin, he writes. On the other, the scholars studying the new subject emphasize class, poverty, and “white trash” in ways that would warm the hearts of those who say the cultural left often overlooks issues of economic inequality.
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