Table Of Contentm m m
out of
OUT OF
" L
A
i l Iv
COLOR,
POLITICS,
AND CULTURE
Vron Ware and Les Back
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London '
Vron Ware is a lecturer in sociology and in women's and gender studies at Yale University. She is the
author of Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History (Verso 1992).
Les Back teaches sociology and urban studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the
author of New Ethnicities and Urban Culture: Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives (UCL1996).
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2002 by Vron Ware and Les Back
All rights reserved. Published 2002
Printed in the United States of America
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 12345
ISBN: 0-226-87341-2 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-87342-0 (paper)
Chapter 6 was originally published as "Nazism and the Call of the Jitterbug," in Dance in the City, edited
by Helen Thomas (London: Macmillan, 1997), pp. 175-97. It appears here in slightly altered form by
permission of Macmillan Press, Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ware, Vron.
Out of whiteness : color, politics, and culture / Vron Ware and Les Back,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-87341-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-226-87342-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Race. 2. Whites—Race identity. 3. Racism—United States. 4. Racism—Great Britain. I. Back, Les,
1962- II. Title.
HT1523 .W37 2002
305.8'00973—dc21
2001048010
© The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-
1992.
TO STUART AND GEORGINA LAWRENCE AND
THEIR PARENTS, DOREEN AND NEVILLE
—V. W.
TO BOB'S MEMORY. AMONG THE MANY THINGS
THAT A FATHER TEACHES A SON, HE TAUGHT
ME THAT IN THE END WE ARE JUDGED NOT BY
WHAT WE SAY, OR EVEN WRITE, BUT WHAT WE
DO AND HOW WE ACT.
—L. B.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Outside the Whale 1
Otherworldly Knowledge: Toward a "Language
of Perspicuous Contrast" 15
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? The Political
Morality of Investigating Whiteness in the
Gray Zone 33
Seeing through Skin/Seeing through
Epidermalization 60
Wagner and Power Chords: Skinheadism, White
Power Music, and the Internet 94
Mothers of Invention: Good Hearts, Intelligent
Minds, and Subversive Acts 133
Syncopated Synergy: Dance, Embodiment, and
the Call of the Jitterbug 169
Ghosts, Trails, and Bones: Circuits of Memory
and Traditions of Resistance 196
Out of Sight: Southern Music and the Coloring
of Sound 227
Room with a View 271
Notes 291
Index 319
Acknowledgments
I don't remember exactly when Les and I decided to write this book
together. It became such an obvious thing to do when we began talking
about our work that I don't think I ever doubted its feasibility. I want
to thank him first for his unwavering determination to get this joint
undertaking started and then completed and for his insight, flexibility,
and friendship along the way. Ongoing conversations with Paul Gilroy
helped to sharpen the arguments and sustain the focus of the book, and
the Carnival against Capitalism was fun, too.
Particular thanks go to Homi Bhabha for his support and encourage
ment at a crucial stage. I'm not sure the result is anything like he will
have imagined, but an early discussion with him helped to clarify some
of the important aims of the book and to sharpen its focus. Alan Thomas
was consistently patient throughout, and his commitment to the book
has been much appreciated.
I am grateful to Paul Stigant, formerly head of the School of Humani
ties at the University of Greenwich, for his support and to Mick Ryan
and John Williams for their help in organizing research leave. My col
leagues in Cultural Geography initiated me into the art and craft of field
trips and showed me new ways to understand the city. Bridget Leach,
Terry Cannon, Noel Campbell, and Sue Golding were steadfast compan
ions and fellow conspirators during my time there. I am particularly
grateful to Alev Adil, Azra Khan, and Paul Goodwin, who came in at
short notice and under difficult conditions to take over my teaching.
At times writing about whiteness from a U.K. standpoint seemed like
a lonely business, and none of this would make sense without a strong
ix
Acknowledgments x
sense of solidarity radiating across the Atlantic. David Roediger not only
made helpful comments on one chapter, but also helped through his
own work to frame this particular intervention. My friendship with Matt
Wray began on the airwaves as we were both invited to speak about
whiteness on a BBC late-night radio show. The nearest thing I have to
an on-line pen-friend, I have come to rely on his good sense, generosity,
and solidarity in these transatlantic collaborations to smash white su
premacy, and I am particularly grateful to him for his critical reading of
the final draft. Anthony Foy told me about Ray Sprigle and then found
me a copy of his book, which made all the difference to chapter 3. Rip
Lhamon's work on minstrelsy helped to egg us on, and the wit and cour
age that shine through his own work were always encouraging.
Versions of chapter 3 were presented at Rutgers University, the Univer
sity of Minnesota, and the University of California-Santa Cruz. Thanks
to Wendy Brown, Jim Clifford, Greta Slobin, Ruthie Gilmore, and Craig
Gilmore for their encouraging comments and positive response. Back
home, Sue Benson at Cambridge University and Steve Pile and Andy
Morris at the Open University geography group gave me a chance to try
out different chapters, which helped, too. I am grateful to David Gold
berg and John Solomos for commissioning a piece from me that was
eventually the basis for chapter 1.
Many thanks to Dienke Hondius and Jan-Erik Dubblemans, who not
only provide warm hospitality in Amsterdam, but also continue to do
exemplary work around the legacy of Anne Frank.
Thanks to historians Pat Barrow and John Buckingham for their help
when I called them up out of the blue.
This book has been a long time in the thinking, if not the writing.
Many passing conversations with friends helped to make sense of diffi
cult passages. Though they might not always have been aware of it, Vikki
Bell, Max Farrar, Louise Hashemi, Isaac Julien, Bridget Orr, Ingrid Pol
lard, Ann Phoenix, Flemming R0gilds, Lynne Tillman, and Lynne Walker
all encouraged me to get on with it. Patrick Wright, whose writing has
also inspired me beyond measure, read another chapter. Tricia Bohn,
Hazel Carby, Beryl Gilroy, Cora Kaplan, Angela McRobbie, Mandy Rose,
Mark Slobin, and Olivia Storey read drafts of the whole book while I
held my breath, and their critical opinions and generous comments were
gratefully received, as always.
On the home front, the wit and wisdom of Marcus and Cora Gilroy
Ware continue to set me straight, and their enthusiasm at my attempts
to learn the cello (thanks, too, to the optimism of my teacher, Ed Jeffer
ies) helped the last period of writing go with a swing.
Vron Ware
