Whiteness as a Fractured Construction:

Race, Class, and the Internal Frontiers of White Identity in the United States

Abstract

This article examines the evolving constructions of whiteness in the United States by bringing
together two often-separated strands of critical inquiry: whiteness studies proper (with its
emphasis on white racial identity and systemic privilege) and the more recent field of “white
trash” studies (which reveals the internal class hierarchies and boundary work within whiteness
itself). Drawing on scholarship from Peter Kolchin, Toni Morrison, Steve Martinot, Veronica
Watson, Matt Wray, Nancy Isenberg, and others, it argues that whiteness has never been a
monolithic or stable identity. Instead, it has continually been defined both against the AfricanAmerican Other and through the exclusionary stigmatization of poor, rural, and working-class whites. The article traces these dynamics from the antebellum period to the present, showing how the erasure of white ethnic particularity, the instrumentalization of poor whites as a buffer class, and the persistent interdependence of white and black identity constructions continue to shape American racial and class formations. Furthermore, it incorporates recent developments in whiteness studies and critical race theory, highlighting ongoing debates around “whitened fascisms”, the “whiteness pandemic”, and the mobilization of white identities in contemporary politics.