Abstract

A key challenge faced by antiracist, feminist scholars engaging white working-class subjects is how to conceptualize and name class-related vulnerabilities while remaining critical of broader narratives of white victimhood/aggrieved whiteness that undergird contemporary forms of white supremacy. In this article, we draw on our respective research experiences studying white working-class communities in the US South to consider how to make conceptual and ethical space for the ways white working-class research subjects navigate—in contradictory ways—the multiple axes of power that shape their lives. Across different projects with white working-class subjects, we found narratives of loss and insecurity tied to class precarity often intertwined, explicitly or implicitly, with tropes of aggrieved whiteness—the latter functioning to legitimize and reinforce broader structures of white supremacy. Each of us struggled to analytically and ethically untangle these threads in the lives of research participants, given our impulse to compassionately explore class precarity while also challenging and critiquing white supremacy. In grappling with these and other dilemmas of interpretation, we reflect on the ethics of care and respect as a cornerstone of feminist methodology and how to engage in compassionate critique as we analyze and represent white working-class narratives.

摘要

参与白人工人阶级学科的反种族主义、女权主义学者面临的一个关键挑战是如何概念化和命名与阶级相关的脆弱性，同时对支持当代白人至上主义形式的白人受害者/受害白人的更广泛叙述持批评态度。在本文中，我们利用各自研究美国南部白人工人阶级社区的研究经验，考虑如何为白人工人阶级研究对象以相互矛盾的方式驾驭多重权力轴的方式创造概念和伦理空间塑造他们的生活。在针对白人工人阶级主题的不同项目中，我们发现与阶级不稳定相关的失去和不安全感的叙述常常明示或隐含地交织在一起，带有委屈的白人的比喻——后者的作用是使白人至上的更广泛结构合法化和加强。我们每个人都努力在分析和道德上解开研究参与者生活中的这些线索，因为我们有同情地探索阶级不稳定的冲动，同时也挑战和批评白人至上主义。在解决这些和其他解释困境时，我们将关怀和尊重的伦理作为女权主义方法论的基石，以及在分析和代表白人工人阶级的叙述时如何进行富有同情心的批评。考虑到我们富有同情心地探索阶级不稳定的冲动，同时也挑战和批评白人至上主义。在解决这些和其他解释困境时，我们将关怀和尊重的伦理作为女权主义方法论的基石，以及在分析和代表白人工人阶级的叙述时如何进行富有同情心的批评。考虑到我们富有同情心地探索阶级不稳定的冲动，同时也挑战和批评白人至上主义。在解决这些和其他解释困境时，我们将关怀和尊重的伦理作为女权主义方法论的基石，以及在分析和代表白人工人阶级的叙述时如何进行富有同情心的批评。