Citation

Buck PD. Transform. Anthropol. 2012; 20(2): 105-117.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, American Anthropological Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1548-7466.2012.01155.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper argues that race is necessary to modern states, maintaining the myth of a "blood"-defined nation providing members with equality before the law, legitimizing the "modern state's" extraction of wealth for the elite. Consequently, whiteness will expand to remain an effective instrument of social control as the United States is molded for its role as enforcer of global corporate empire. This role requires an increase in exploitable people for military and productive labor, much of which is provided by immigrants. To manage them some will have to be admitted to the social control class; doing so while maintaining the value of the psychological wage of whiteness will require extending whiteness to class-based segments of non-White immigrant groups. Acting for elite interests by shedding blood and enforcing labor exploitation has historically whitened and may again whiten some who are seen as a threat to White supremacy and the racially defined mythical nation.

Language: en