‘On Being White: There's Nothing I Can Say’

Abstract

We aim to illuminate the construction of ‘whiteness’ in organizations, in order to contribute to changing power relations, and the enduring material inequalities they produce. We chart four cycles of inquiry, encompassing: gender and sexuality; ethnicity; surfacing issues of whiteness at work; and making sense of the whole, drawing on concepts of discourse, identity and hegemony. Our work with public sector managers and professionals (third cycle) highlights the taken-for-grantedness of whiteness: silence about ethnicity means that talk about ethnicity is ‘transgressive’; and silence about whiteness masks white power through normalizing whiteness. The discourse of neutrality is dominant. The article offers two helpful concepts: power/identity, to signify the intricate intersections of different identities with the complex manifestations of power within organizations; and silencing as a hegemonic discourse, policed through embarrassment, which perpetuates inequalities and conceals white power. The task of management educators is to draw attention to this discursive concealment, and model a process of surfacing both ethnicity and whiteness.

Orientations to Social Constructionism: Relationally Responsive Social Constructionism and its Implications for Knowledge and Learning

“…The focus is not on what that social reality is-because there is no fi xed, universally shared understanding of reality-but how people shape meaning between themselves in responsive dialogue. Some suggest that power interweaves all social relationships (Beech and Brockbank, 1999;Deetz, 1992Deetz, , 1995MacAlpine and Marsh, 2005;Phillips and Hardy, 1997), while others see the process as more benign (Watson, 2001). From the perspective of intersubjectively created emerging social realities, both research and learning aims to offer insights into how we negotiate meanings about our experiences, and in doing so, shape those experiences between us in our conversations, with the aim of becoming more thoughtful, careful and refl exive about how we do so.…”

To be accountable: The whiteness of feminist organisation studies

“…In organisation studies, scholars are beginning to reflect on whiteness in organisation studies and organisational practices (e.g. Bates and Ng, 2021;Grimes, 2002;Hunter et al, 2010;Liu and Baker, 2016;Liu and Pechenkina, 2016;MacAlpine and Marsh, 2005;Nkomo and Al Ariss, 2014;Samaluk, 2014). But much less attention has been given to white feminism and white femininities (see Liu, 2020;Swan, 2010Swan, , 2017 for exceptions).…”

A Primer on Asian Americans and Asian American Studies for Public Administration

“…Bill of Rights and Fair Housing Act rules in 2008 to identify gaps between desired equity in "color-blind" policies and resulting racial disparities. As whites obtain benefits in society, white supremacy is embedded into public institutions because these institutions reflect racialized systems that benefit whites (Macalpine & Marsh, 2005).…”