The Shifting Margins of Whiteness and Otherness Hispanic American Women and the Social Construction of Race

Sasha Wortzel

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hernandez, Sarah

Keywords

Race, Gender, Whiteness

Area of Concentration

Sociology

Abstract

This thesis explores the grey area between Whiteness and Otherness and the instability of racial borders through Hispanic-American women's experiences with race and culture. I conducted in-depth interviews with Hispanic American women on race, class, gender, home, language, and culture in order to get a better of understanding of how Latina women's racial identities are shaped through daily interactions that sometimes situationally position them as white, and at other times as others, questioning our notions of who counts as white. Each woman I interviewed identified as Hispanic, but in some situations was able to experience Whiteness, or at least gain access to certain privileges that come with being white. Yet these specific instances were only temporary. Therefore the system by which we are race-d as either White or Other was never truly subverted or destabilized. Nonetheless, these breaks do show us the constructed nature of racial borders and power relations, revealing a complicated process in which the system is simultaneously broken and maintained.

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