On whiteness
(Book)

Papers from a symposium co-organized by The Racial Imaginary Institute and The Kitchen, held at The Kitchen in Manhattan, June 30, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Cofounded in 2017 by authors Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, the Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective of artists, writers, knowledge-producers and activists. The institute's historic 2018 symposium 'On Whiteness' convened a dazzling array of thinkers, artists and activists. The essays that resulted from the event, collected here, seek to examine whiteness as a source of often unquestioned or even unobserved power, and make visible variations of this dangerous ideology that has been intentionally positioned as neutral. In our current moment, whiteness is freshly articulated: as a source of unquestioned power, and as a 'bloc', it feels itself endangered even as it retains its hold on power. Given that the concept of racial hierarchy is a strategy employed to support white dominance, whiteness is an important aspect of any conversation about race. The essays in On Whiteness make visible what has been intentionally presented as inevitable to help the move forward into more revelatory conversations about race. They question what can be made when we investigate, evade, beset and call out 'bloc whiteness.'"--,Publisher's description.

"The exhibition portion of On Whiteness aims to take advantage of art's powerful ability to reframe dominant ways of seeing, especially with regard to philosopher Sara Ahmed's postulation of whiteness as a 'habit,' whose power to form and sustain specific social behaviors and institutions resides in its being taken entirely for granted. As Ahmed proposes: 'Whiteness is what bodies do, where the body takes shape of the action ... spaces are oriented 'around' whiteness, insofar as whiteness is not seen.' By disorienting the particularly habituated space of the white cube gallery, the work in this exhibition questions, marks, and checks whiteness, challenging its dominance as it operates through default positions in cultural behavior."--,Provided by publisher.