Hegemonic irrationalities and psychoanalytic cultural critique

‘Whiteness’ is no longer an invisible or marginal racial category. Within the last decade, ‘whiteness’ has become increasingly understood as an ideological, racial and political marker in both the rhetoric of right-wing conservatives and in the ‘new’ critical scholarship on ‘whiteness’. This article analyses both of these discourses while focusing on the strengths and limitations of the ‘new’ critical scholarship on ‘whiteness’. Finally, it raises the pedagogical and political issue of what it means to rearticulate ‘whiteness’ in oppositional terms in order to enable white students to have a stake in anti-racist and democratic struggles being waged by other groups.