Whiteness itself functioned as inheritable wealth for white Americans

Evidence

Whatever else Senator McConnell inherited, he inherited whiteness, which perfectly positioned him to enjoy the life he has today. In contrast, the first black person was elected to a statewide office in Kentucky in 2015. As of 2019, “there is only one black-owned business in downtown Athens: The Sweetest Thing Tea Room.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 566

Categorization

• XREF: Functions as the counter-example to Scalia’s immigrant-innocence framing that appears two passages later; also echoes Whiteness of Wealth’s core thesis. — connects to: Racial and class oppression are inextricable, with whiteness holding six times the wealth. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 89; Whitening norms frame impoverishment as black and wealth as white — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1150; Whiteness is the load-bearing fiction behind America’s racial architecture. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 65 (+2 more)