1st Edition

White Lives The Interplay of 'Race', Class and Gender in Everyday Life

By Bridget Byrne Copyright 2006
208 Pages
by Routledge

208 Pages
by Routledge

208 Pages
by Routledge

This revealing book explores the processes of racialization, class and gender, and examines how these processes play out in the everyday lives of white women living in London with young children. Bridget Byrne analyzes the flexibility of racialized discourse in everyday life, whilst simultaneously arguing for a radical deconstruction of the notions of race these discourses create. Byrne focuses... Read more

Acknowledgements *

1: Knowing ‘whiteness’ *

Why look at whiteness? – Critiquing white feminism *

White studies? *

Examining the white in the Union Jack *

Summary of the book *

2. Troubling ‘race’ *

Introduction *

Deconstructing, de-essentialising and troubling ‘race’ *

Perceptual practices and the performativity of ‘race’ *

Conclusion *

3. Talk, tea and tape recorders *

Camberwell and Clapham *

Finding interviewees *

Who is white? *

The interviews *

Analysing the Interviews *

4: Narrating the self *

Introduction *

A story to tell *

Sally - transformation of the self *

Where there is no story *

Madeleine: ‘Where do I fit in?’ *

Deborah: a natural progression *

Rosemary: - ‘going with the flow’ *

Conclusion *

5. Seeing, talking, living ‘race’ *

Introduction *

‘Race’ in the eye of the beholder (or seeing is believing) *

Blackness in the white imaginary *

Big black man *

Geographies of ‘race’ (small white girl comes to big bright lights) *

Conclusion *

6: In search of a ‘good mix’. ‘Race’, class and gender and practices of mothering. *

Introduction *

Sensitive mothers *

Mother’s friendships and social networking *

Choosing schools *

Guess whose coming for tea, Mummy *

Conclusion *

7: How English am I? *

Introduction *

England’s Green and Pleasant Land *

Emma *

Heather *

Empty Englishness *

Evading Englishness *

Conclusion *

8. Conclusion *

Bibliography *

Appendix 1: Interviewees *

Appendix 2: Interview Questions *

Biography

Bridget Byrne is a lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester.