A Darker Shade of Pale: Whiteness as Integral to Middle-Class Identity

Abstract

Drawing on the growing literature on whiteness in the United States and more recently in the United Kingdom, this chapter interrogates whiteness as integral to white middle-class identity. The first part of the chapter describes the high value attributed to multicultural schooling by the parents, mapping out positive aspects of their self-interested altruism. It then discusses more problematic aspects in which the differential values attributed to classed and raced others is often strongly related to the extent these others share the same or similar values. While for many parents and children, there are very positive gains from attending socially diverse schooling, and ethnic diversity is often valued for its educative potential, there remain many difficult and uncomfortable issues around whiteness in multi-ethnic contexts. Even those parents who actively choose ethnically diverse schooling appear to remain entrapped in white privilege despite their political and moral sentiments.