Page 141 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Invisible Whiteness of Being: The Nature of the Beast 115

facial features such as nasal index and lip form) that distinguished them from
the idealized physical features of the dominant group (fair skin, blue - eyed,
straight hair, etc.). Although there is a lack of scientific support for a clear

biological definition of race (Helms, Jernigan, & Mascher, 2005; Wang & S.
Sue, 2005; Rowe, 2005), people continue to differentiate between groups on
the basis of phenotype. In general the term “ White, ” as used in the United
States, refers not only to White Anglo - Saxon Protestants, but other White
ethnics as well (Ponterotto, Utsey, & Pedersen, 2006). As they point out, the

defining Anglolike features, primarily white skin, allowed White ethnics to
assimilate and acculturate into mainstream America.
The experience of people of color, however, has been qualitatively differ-
ent; their physical characteristics were seen as unacceptable by White people
who blocked them from fully participating in the “ land of opportunity. ”
Thus, a color line that separated visible racial/ethnic minority features from
those in the majority (dominant) culture became institutionalized with result-
ing psychological, sociological, economical, political, and legal implications.
Whiteness became associated with everything desirable, while other physi-
cal features became associated with undesirability. In a broad sense, physical
differences like Whiteness would not be problematic if it were not predicated
on White supremacy, imposed overtly or covertly on people of color, and
made invisible to well - intentioned perpetrators (Sue, 2003, 2004).
The deleterious effects of racial microaggressions, for example, are cloaked
within an invisible White veil. In this manner, perpetrators are allowed to
enjoy the benefits that accrue to them by virtue of their skin color. They resist

the realization that Whiteness, White supremacy, and White privilege are
three interlocking forces that disguise covert forms of racism. It allows many
Whites to continue their oppressive and harmful ways while maintaining
their individual and collective advantage and innocence. Covert racism hides
in the background of Whiteness: (1) it is an unacknowledged secret protected
through silence, (2) it advantages many Whites who enjoy unearned advan-
tages due to skin color, and (3) it allows many Whites to deny responsibility
for how it disadvantages and harms other groups of color (Sleeter & Bernal,
2004; Tatum, 2002).

Four - Step Process Model of Whiteness - to-Racism Conversion

The symbolic manifestation of Whiteness is an everyday occurrence and its
normative features are insidiously manifested in our institutions and culture.

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