Response to "Picturing Whiteness: Nikki S. Lee's Yuppie Project"

Maurice Berger talks about how “we live in a culture in which whiteness is so much the norm that it does not have to be named. […] It is precisely this refusal to name whiteness, to assign it meaning, that frees white people from seeing their complicity in the social, cultural, and historical economy of racism.” I do agree with the author that most white people do not even realize their advantages or privileges in society; privileges not necessarily afforded to other minority groups. I do believe that, in my lifetime, there will be a shift in the profiling, current definition of “minority.” Census groups predict that by 2050 (and likely sooner), that whites will become the minority in America. That, however, does little to nothing to alleviate current and future concerns such as racial profiling and poverty.

The picture above is from an add for a L'Oreal/ Vichy skin-whitening cosmetic, "BI-White." The woman pictured is removing her dark, blemished skin revealing the healthier, clean, and beautifully white skin. There is still a deeply seeded notion, not only in America but throughout the world, that anything other than “white” or “whiteness” is unclean or something to be ashamed of. This perception comes from hundreds of years of patriarchal white privilege that has dominated American society and the world. Let us hope that we can make the choice to plant different seeds in society that are not governed by prejudice and hatred.