The spatialization of whiteness in migrant farm communities in Washington state

Joshua F Hoops

In this ethnographic dissertation, I develop a spatial framework, emphasizing the intersections of the symbolic and material, to contextualize and fragment our understanding of whiteness. Marrying race with space complicates essentialized depictions of whiteness and de-racialized descriptions of space. Extending the contributions of Henri Lefebvre, I argue that discourses of whiteness intersect with spatial control, exacerbating continued racial division in concrete, material locations. As space does not exist independently of discourse, it is constituted by ideological interests. Space also plays an important role in identification, and thus a more nuanced understanding of whiteness involves examining how spaces are represented, and the implications for white identity. In this study, I utilized observation, interviews, and mapping. My fieldwork, conducted in the spring of 2011, took place in a farm town in central Washington that relies upon migrant workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The two major contributions of this research are a) the demonstration of the intersections between whiteness, space, and communication and b) the proposal of a framework for incorporating space into research on the symbolic constructions of race. White participants' spatial narratives elucidate pioneer and multiculturalist expressions of whiteness. The citation of an agricultural ethos also pervades discourses of whiteness in this community. Demographic changes evoke new discursive strategies in which space is rhetorically constructed to affirm and contract whiteness, while simultaneously justifying racial distance and naturalizing spatial avoidance. These specific articulations of space signal the resiliency of whiteness to morph in response to perceived threats to its position and assuage anxiety over demographic changes. A spatial approach highlights how social productions of space can both reinforce colorblindness ideology and render whiteness visible for the satiation of specific identity needs. How spaces, like those identified by members of an agricultural farm community, are represented and how those articulations both unite and separate are necessary for moving the whiteness project forward

The spatialization of whiteness in migrant farm communities in Washington state

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