joel olson, on whiteness as power as opposed to cultural identity:

"the problem, of course, is that whiteness historically has not been an expression of culture so much as a form of standing reflecting relations of inequality, discrimination, privilege, and terror."

"it is more useful to understand whiteness as a form of power rather than as a culture. after all, it is not white culture that unites a brooklyn cop, a silicon valley entrepreneur, a rural west virginian, a portland hippie, and a phoenix metal head; it is white power..."

"whiteness studies’ failure to understand whiteness as a form of power follows from the politics of recognition’s tendency to understand racial conflict in terms of the misrecognition of cultures rather than the persistence of relations of privilege and subordination."