Theorizing White Ignorance From Du Bois to Mills
Narrative and Consumptive Innocence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5952098 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Miguel Montalva Barba (0000-0002-5247-1600, University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts USA, corresponding author), Camille Petersen (0000-0001-7018-7753, University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee USA) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 153-162 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-4446.70054 |
| PMID | 41138229 |
| OpenAlex | W4415547507 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
Starting with Du Bois, scholars of race have investigated the role of White ignorance as it perpetuates White supremacy. Today, Charles Mills and scholars continue this inquiry by expanding the importance of White ignorance to include multiple forms. This article contributes to this inquiry by highlighting the role and types of White innocence. We argue that White innocence functions in two ways that generate and justify White innocence, narrative and consumptive innocence. We use St. Augustine, Florida, and Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to outline the contours of narrative and consumptive innocence. Through the paper, we find that global White supremacy is operating in similar, yet local ways based on place-based histories that produce the two types of innocence. We conclude by connecting this research to the larger Du Boisian sociology as a liberatory practice
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White Supremacy and Racism in Progressive America
Unveiling the Color Line
The Extended Case Method
The Enigma of Diversity
Decolonial Woes and Practices of Un-knowing
Third-Wave Sociology and the End of Pure Science
Racism, Colonialism, and Modernity
The Sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois
The Gratifications of Whiteness
The Black Shoals
Consuming the Caribbean
Real Indians
The Race That Space Makes
Racial Capitalism and the Production of Racial Innocence
Inside the ivory tower, the view from a “space invader”
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Capitalizing on Heritage
That racism thing’
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Not a Nation of Immigrants
White Innocence
The Racialization of Space and the Spatialization of Race
Advancing a sociology of ignorance in the study of racism and racial non-knowing
Historylessness
Settler Collective, Founding Violence and Disavowal
The White Space
Hillbillies, Genetic Pathology, and White Ignorance
Critique of Glenn on Settler Colonialism and Bonilla-Silva on Critical Race Analysis from Indigenous Perspectives
(Re)enacting Settler Colonialism via White Resident Utterances
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Settler agnosia in the field
The future of whiteness
Social geographies of race
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |