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Reflections Of Whiteness: The Origins, Progression, And Maintenance Of White, Marcus Bell

McNair Scholars Journal

Despite the prevailing national discourse that implicates race as an outdated phenomenon, ongoing social science data identifies race as very predictive in determining life outcomes. Over the last 40 years the emergence of “whiteness studies” has sought to redefine racism from individual actions of bigoted persons to institutional systems of privilege and disadvantage. While there have been a number of studies detailing the failures of reconstruction to embrace an equal citizenry fully, and also a number of studies detailing the eventual assimilation of European immigrants, few studies have sought to connect both into one simultaneous entity. Using historiography and historical …