Whiteness functions as an unmarked standard against which black intellectuals are judged.

Evidence

But while Berube raises a number of probing and important questions about the social functions of public intellectuals, Boynton is scornful of such intellectuals, and arrogantly offers up the cultural capital of “distinguished” white intellectuals as the legitimating trope for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of black intellectuals. This is not to suggest that Boynton indulges in a form of racism. But it does imply that the politics of whiteness offers a fundamental context for understanding how the discourse on black intellectuals is framed and addressed in the popular press. In this case, whiteness, as Toni Morrison (1992) reminds us, becomes invisible to itself and hence the all-pervasive referent for judging public intellectuals who speak and write in an effort to engage a broader public. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2649

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concretely defines ‘the politics of whiteness’ as whiteness becoming invisible to itself while serving as the unmarked judging referent.
• XREF: Toni Morrison’s point about whiteness as invisible referent echoes her Playing in the Dark essay. — connects to: The Talented Tenth ideal assumed northeastern white culture as the universal standard — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 161