White People Make Everything About Race
A podcast for well meaning white folks, trying to make sense of their own racial identity.
The first half of season two “Is White Privilege a Lie?" is out now!
We’ll return with fresh episodes to close it out in September.
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If you’re white like me, at some point you’ve probably been told it’s not polite to talk about race. But have you ever really thought about race? About your own race? About what it means for you?
Welcome to a show that asks the question: what does it mean to be well meaning and white in a society that has failed to fully address racial disparities?
Learn more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com.
White People Make Everything About Race
Season 2, Episode 5: The Five Phantoms of White Privilege; Part 2, Centered in the Story (Cultural Representation)
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This episode we’re going to take a deep dive on the second of our Five Phantoms of White Privilege, and that phantom is the way that whiteness has been continually centered in the story of America. It’s the way whiteness is core to the story we tell about our world: past, present, and future.
This is about cultural representation, how it is controlled and how it shapes expectations, and then how it excludes or punishes those who don’t meet them.
Whether in popular fiction, news media, or our lived experiences, the ways that whiteness, and the white experience is centered is and has been self-reinforcing.
Sources and notes:
From servants to outlaws: 100 years of Black representation in Hollywood films. Althea Manasan and Mary O'Connell. CBC Radio · Posted: Mar 18, 2021 2:29 PM EDT | Last Updated: March 1, 2023 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/from-servants-to-outlaws-100-years-of-black-representation-in-hollywood-films-1.5953758
Black representation in film and TV: The challenges and impact of increasing diversity. March 11, 2021. McKinsey. Jonathan Dunn, Sheldon Lyn. Nony Onyeador, Emmanuel Zegeye. https://www.mckinsey.com/Featured-Insights/Diversity-and-Inclusion/Black-representation-in-film-and-TV-The-challenges-and-impact-of-increasing-diversity
Just How White Is the Book Industry?. Richard Jean So and Gus Wezerek. Nytimes Dec. 11, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/11/opinion/culture/diversity-publishing-industry.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage retrieved 11 March 2025.
Bickmore, S. T., Xu, Y., & Sheridan, M. I. (2017). Where Are the People of Color?: Representation of Cultural Diversity in the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and Advocating for Diverse Books in a Non-Post Racial Society. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and E ducation, 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.16.1.06
Anjali Adukia, Alex Eble, Emileigh Harrison, Hakizumwami Birali Runesha, Teodora Szasz, What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children’s Books, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 138, Issue 4, November 2023, Pages 2225–2285, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad028
New Study Looks at Race, Gender Representation in Award-Winning Children’s Books. Kara Yorio. Apr 16, 2021. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books
The Music Industry Was Built On Racism. Changing It Will Take More Than Donations. ELIAS LEIGHT. JUNE 5, 2020. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-racism-1010001/
‘Black in Space’ looks at final frontier of civil ri
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