White means never having to say you're ethnic - White youth and the construction of "cultureless" identities

This article examines the processes by which white identities are construct ed as "cultureless" among white youth in two high schools: one predominantl y white, the other multiracial. The author proposes that whites assert raci al superiority by claiming they have no culture because to be cultureless i mplies that one is either the "norm" (the standard by which others are judg ed) or "rational" (developmentally advanced). Drawing on ethnographic resea rch and in-depth interviews, the author argues that in the majority-white s chool, processes of naturalization-the embedding of historically constitute d practices in what feels "normal" and natural-produced feelings of cultura l lack among white students. Contrarily at the multiracial school, tracking and add-on multiculturalism helped constitute cultureless identities throu gh processes of rationalization-the embedding of whiteness within a Western rational paradigm that subordinates all things cultural. The implications of these findings for critical white studies, sociology of education, and r acial identity formation are discussed.