why is whiteness a contested term in sociology??

Answer 1

"Whiteness" is culturally twisted into "white is right". It has historically been used as a marker of "superiority" in pathological domination paradigms. There is nothing wrong with Caucasian heritage. But, Caucasian heritage is about much more than the scant amount of melanin that marshalls to the surface of the skin of people who genetically hail from far north of the equator. Concepts of "whiteness" are offensive to Caucasians, too, in that skin color cannot in any way determine the quality or honor of a person.

Answer 2

Great question; I believe this was also asked of us in a history class. It is contested because it is not scientific. "Whiteness" is a term that has been used politically and subjectively. Meaning, it has been utilized by different groups of people (rather than a uniform, scientific body) to label other, particular groups of people at different times. So, in India, for example, their version of "whiteness" may be someone who is a golden color rather than very dark brown. In America, in the late 1800s, a German population that was heading the government in Indiana, for example, may have referred to "whiteness" when making laws that particularly allowed everyone rights except for a targeted group like African-Americans. Today, a right-winged Congressman in Arizona may use the term "whiteness" when attempting to point out a difference with someone of a Hispanic origin, for example. So, in our class, we were taught that "whiteness" was relative; unfactual and changing meaning by whomever is defining it at the time. That is why it is sort of rejected by sociology, which is more a "science" by nature, or at least, attempts to be more scientific in nature. I sure hope this helps.

Answer 3

The answer to this question is simple... Can you tell me definitively where whiteness stops and black begins.

No?

Well that is why the terms 'white' and 'black' are contested, as they are socially contructed and culturally differential terms

Answer 4

any term about race is basically contested. race is a social construct, since we are all the same species. whiteness and blackness were mostly defined by courts making decisions in slavery and jim crow times and we still go by those ideas.
ancestry and ethnicity and identification all go into it.

Answer 5

Do you know that in sociology, the power of thinking is a good strength? Do you have it?
Read about this here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/373811/the_power_of_thinking.html

Answer 6

Don't follow. If a negro can be black why can't a caucasian be white? Or is it pink or a whiter shade of pale or what. Anyway sociology is a load of codswallop anyway.

Answer 7

It is a limiting term. Your race should not define who you are.

Answer 8

is blackness and browness an allowed term?

Answer 9

And the answer is....?