Whiteness is a modern, colonial invention. It was devised in the 17th century and used to provide the logic for genocide and slavery. The first recorded mention of “white people”, historians concur, is in English playwright Thomas Middleton’s 1613 play, The Triumphs of Truth.
Ever since the 17th century, people across the world – from the Dominican Republic and Morocco to India and New Zealand – have been variously granted or denied rights on the basis of being deemed white or non-white. Whiteness thus has consistently entailed opposition, power and subjugation.
Research shows that this theme of whiteness as power and unity has persisted even as the boundaries of whiteness have shifted.
