To combat racism today, it is necessary to understand the history of the ideology of “race” to challenge our understanding of whiteness as the foundation of racial categories and racism.
When people refer to “white people” (either in self-identification or identifying individuals/groups), it is often being used as a shorthand reference to whiteness, about which people may have varied understandings.
In other words, it is being used as a shorthand for the privileges and power that people who appear white receive because they are not subjected to the racism faced by black people.
