This article focuses on the cultural narratives underlying U.S. society’s racialized inequalities. Informed by settler colonial theory and Charles Tilly’s work on “durable inequality,” I outline a privilege narratives framework that centers the dual mechanisms of racial dispossession that construct white supremacy’s material foundations: (1) the exploitation of non-Indigenous bodies and (2) the opportunity hoarding of Indigenous resources. I argue that these complementary, yet divergent, mechanisms shape distinctive patterns in contemporary racial discourse. In contrast to color-blind racism’s ahistoric and spatially disembedded storylines, the hoarding of Indigenous resources requires narrations that historically legitimate the dominant culture’s territoriality. Thus, in comparison with other racialized groups, racial discourse surrounding Indigenous peoples remains rooted in the defense of the territorial foundations of white property. Empirical support for the theoretical framework is provided through a sample of purposive follow-up interviews of non-Indigenous bystanders with historical connections to the American Indian Movement’s (AIM) “Red Power” activism in the 1970s.

本文重点关注美国社会种族化不平等背后的文化叙事。根据定居者殖民理论和查尔斯·蒂利 (Charles Tilly) 关于“持久不平等”的工作，我概述了一个特权叙事框架，该框架以构建白人至上的物质基础的种族剥夺的双重机制为中心：(1)对非土著身体的剥削和 (2)的机会，囤积的本土资源。我认为这些互补但又不同的机制在当代种族话语中塑造了独特的模式。与色盲种族主义的非历史性和空间分离的故事情节相反，对土著资源的囤积需要在历史上使主流文化的领土合法化的叙述。因此，与其他种族化群体相比，围绕土著人民的种族话语仍然植根于捍卫白人财产的领土基础。对与 1970 年代美国印第安人运动 (AIM) 的“红色权力”激进主义有历史联系的非土著旁观者进行有目的的后续访谈样本，为理论框架提供了实证支持。