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Whiteness studies is a controversial branch of academic scholarship which emerged circa 1997. As of 2004, according to The Washington Post, at least 30 institutions including Princeton University, the University of California at Los
Angeles, and UMass/Amherst currently
offer courses in whiteness studies.
The central tenet of whiteness studies is a reading of history in which the very concept of race is said to have been created
by a white power structure in order to justify discrimination against nonwhites. Advocates of whiteness studies argue that whites
do not see their own whiteness racially, but regard race as something that "others" have; by emphasizing "whiteness," they seek
to change white Americans' view of their own racial identity.
Critics deride the field as a fad, or as a mask for racism against whites.
See also
- Race, for a discussion of the biological concept of race and its applicability to the
human population
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