Antiracist discourse defines whiteness through opposable racist attributes rather than skin color

Evidence

This myth views “being white” as an immutable condition with clear and distinct moral attributes. These attributes often include: being racist; not experiencing racism; being an oppressor; not experiencing oppression; silencing; not being silenced. People of colour are defined via their relation to this myth. They are defined, then, as “non-whites”; as people whose identity is formed through their resistance to others’ oppressive agency; as experiencing racism; as nonracist (if not anti-racist). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3652

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘myth of whiteness’ that structures antiracist discourse.
• SEED: An essay on how the moral-attribute model of whiteness shapes antiracist strategy and its blind spots.
• XREF: connects to: Whiteness was defined as exclusion from black occupation, not skin or work — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 399; Whiteness means partaking in skin privileges above any excluded person — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 29