Cheryl I. Harris’ Whiteness as Property as a foundational piece of scholarship for critical race theory, provides an enhanced understanding of how whiteness has evolved from “color to race to status to property” (1714). As the namesake of the article, Harris pays particular attention to the legal and social realities that have made way for whiteness to go from an intangible concept to a tangible entity, citing various court cases that have upheld and developed the construction of race in conversation with white supremacy. Harris broadens our understanding of whiteness by articulating the entity in relation to racial otherness and conceptualizing “property” – as it pertains to appropriation of labor (Blacks) and appropriation of land (Native Americans). Racial subordination and economic domination, in conversation with the shared premise of exclusion held by whiteness and property become even more relevant as Harris goes on to connect this the reification of this concept through the Supreme Court cases of; Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. Both cases deal with whiteness as it manifests through the “separate but equal” doctrine; however, the former upholding said doctrine, and the latter’s challenge ultimately overturning it. In essence, these cases emphasize the structural nature of “whiteness” as it is “something that can be both experienced and deployed as a resource” (1734). She finally goes into affirmative action and underlines the process as it mediates the racialized privileges associated with whiteness and “whiteness as property.” I had two main pre-read impressions of Harris’ article; this reading is really long, and this reading must be dense with legal jargon (given that it is housed in the Harvard Law Review). After reading the article, Harris’ articulation of “whiteness as property” in conjunction with the conceptualization of my own independent research project, has provided a much needed area of discussion to consider not only brownness’ relationship to blackness, but brownness to whiteness, given the implications of property that this article presents. I agree with Harris’ argument of whiteness and property in connection to exclusivity/exclusion, especially as it relates to my project. Given that the article was published in 1993, I think it would be interesting to examine how whiteness and/as property manifests in much more contemporary legal cases.
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