Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Another example of default whiteness

I subscribe to It Made My Day (IMMD), which offers a few short user-submitted cheery stories every day. Here's the one I just read:

As I prepared to take my first grade class out for recess, the students, all black, watched me dab SPF 15 all over my face. One little girl studied me and asked, “Miz B, do you got to put your white on every day ? IMMD

(Teach's little moment of win)
Skin color is clearly relevant to this story. The submitter identifies her students as black, but does not explicitly identify herself as white. We learn it indirectly from the student she quotes. This is another example of the ways in which whiteness is the presumed default race.

Just thought it merited notice.

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