Whiteness: A strategic rhetoric

Abstract

Communication scholars have often overlooked the importance of whiteness as an influence in their research. In this essay, we explore the territory of whiteness in order to map the discursive space it occupies. This mapping of the discursive space, or territory, of whiteness is the first step in the process of exposing whiteness as a rhetorical construction. We then discuss some of the rhetorical strategies through which whiteness resecures its discursive space. We conclude with three aspects of reflexivity that offer directions for further research.