Ethnicity theories of race assume whiteness is the normalized standard

Evidence

In sum, the logic of assimilation, the default to whiteness - whether conscious or unconscious- is an inherent part of ethnicity theories of race (Jung 2009). As U.S. society transitions from the substantial and largely unquestioned white majorities of the past, to an increasingly majorityminority demographic pattern, the normalization of whiteness that has been an assumed constant of ethnicitybased theories of race may be eroding. Ethnicitybased approaches have lost social scientific coherence as they capitulated to neoconservative political priorities, insisting that in the “postcivil rights” era a new framework of “colorblindness” could replace race- immigration and integration to the postWorld War II United States may thus be a classical case of bad social science: the conception and (highly influential) divulgation of a theory based on little more than a single very limited case study and a good deal of ideological wishful thinking. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 58

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Assimilation theory frames whiteness as the default outcome of immigrant incorporation — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 59