"Whiteness as an "Unmarked" Cultural Category" (Rosenblum and Travis, p. 88-94).

"The category of "American" represents simultaneously the normative and the residual, the dominant culture and a nonculture" (Rosenblum and Travis, p. 90).

"Whites...became conceptually the real Americans, and only certain kinds of whites actually qualified   (Rosenblum and Travis, p. 90).

The two quotes seen above provide an outlook about being "American" that honestly saddens me. As a white American woman, I am very much aware that to be white is to be "normal" in some circles throughout the U.S, though I don't include that norm in my own life. As the second quotes points out, not all white people were actually considered to be white people, even if their skin color was somewhat the same shade. I am referring to those who originated from countries such as Ireland, Italy and Eastern European countries. These people were only really considered to be white in the mid 1950's. My own great-great grandmother was from Czechoslovakia, and my grandmother has told me stories about the discrimination her grandmother and mother faced for being of Eastern European descent while living in the U.S. which she and I never had to experience, since we are now considered to be white.

To return to the first quote which insinuates that to be white means you have no culture, is interesting.         I have had the opportunity to travel across the U.S. to visit friends and family in various other states other than those in New England. The one thing I enjoyed the most was being apart of others' culture and traditions, no matter how large or small they might seem. To think that white people don't have culture seems untrue. I don't want to negate others' feelings that they don't have culture, because maybe for them there is a bigger issue. Perhaps they need to connect with community so they feel like they do have culture because the culture they have cultivated, perhaps one of isolation, doesn't suit them.

Rosenblum, K. E., & Travis, T. C. (2012). The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability (ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.


I grew up in western Massachusetts. Even the cultures between there and where I live in VT are different. I chose VT for very specific reasons, all of which can fall under the category of culture. Culture doesn't have to find you, you can create whatever you want it to be.