Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst
Critical Whiteness and more

What does it mean to be white? This seemingly banal question remains rarely asked. Most people who define themselves as white have never thought about being white, implicitly considering it the norm from which all “others” who are not white deviate. Whiteness almost always remains unmarked and unreflected – with the focus usually being on the others. Yet being white is quite obviously connected with privileges and power relations that define relationships and interactions with “other” people. In the workshop held by professor of African Studies Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, the participants reflect on what it is like to be white or not white, and about their experience. The aim is to make whiteness visible as a constructed category of power. Where can we identify white power in everyday culture? And can white people decide to opt out of whiteness?

Mitwirkende / Mitwirkender: Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst