In her article, Tiffany N. Younger examines the role of whiteness in academic and social institutions. She argues that despite commitments to social justice, many organizations reinforce dominance through structures that center whiteness. Drawing from various theorists, including Bell Hooks and Hess, Younger highlights the constructed nature of race and whiteness and how these constructs perpetuate inequality. The article suggests that a deeper interrogation of whiteness is necessary to dismantle its power and promote genuine equity within these institutions.
"Cultures of domination rely on the cultivation of fear as a way to ensure obedience" - Bell Hooks (2000). This point underscores how systems of power operate through intimidation.
Each institution I worked at had a commitment to social justice and liberation for all, yet they all perpetuated inequality to maintain power by centering whiteness.
Hess (2007) refers to the functioning of whiteness as 'white mythologies' and argues that it functions as the dissonance between reality and what is socially fictitiously constructed.
Somehow, there is a lack of interrogation of whiteness as a construct that ultimately positions whiteness as what is natural and normal, leading to its ability to dominate.
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