White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race

Chapter 7 shifts the focus back to prerequisite cases and the insights they provide about race-consciousness. Ozawa and Thind drew attention to the amorphous definition of whiteness. Rather than question the notion of race, however, the Supreme Court embraced popular prejudice by shoring up and narrowing the definition of whiteness. This calls attention to the value of whiteness to white people, who benefit from their racial identity in myriad ways—socially, economically, politically. The value of whiteness explains why white judges maintained the category, even in the face of changing science.

A 1994 experiment highlights the continued value of whiteness to white people. That year, a white student at the University of Maryland darkened the color of his skin to understand what it was like to be Black. The student gave up after two days, citing unbearable hardship:

I was sick of being black. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to throw up […] Now people acted like they hated me. Nothing had changed but the color of my skin. I went to the closet, pulled out my suitcase. After all of two days, the experiment was over. Maybe I was weak, maybe I couldn’t hack it. I didn’t care.