White space, white privilege: Mapping discursive inquiry into the self

This study explores the rot of communication in the strategic self-definiti on of whiteness. The transcripts from two focus group interviews (with Whit es from two Historically Block Universities) are used to map the discourses of "White" participants concerning the nature of whiteness The maps, when analyzed, uncovered significant commentary about White space and White priv ilege. Five strategies of representation emerged from the discursive territ ories. They identify whiteness as: (I) incompletion, (2) uninterrogateable spay (3) metaphor for the universal insider, (4) guilty and fair space, and (5) situationally immutable. The results imply that the space that Whites occupy is unclearly constructed and defined, and therefore is enigmatic.