I go back and forth on whether “whiteness studies” is an important field that helps us deconstruct and analyze how whiteness functions or whether “whiteness studies” is just an academic re-centering of white people and we should instead center theorizations of race by BIPoC.

Definitely was not expecting such lively discussion under this post! The post is a genuine wrestling with a field I have myself engaged with. David Roediger's work was my intro into the field which I find useful. And, I wrestle with it and its commodification in the academy.

Part of what I wrestle with is how Whiteness Studies gains currency in some spaces over work in Ethnic Studies and Black Studies (which is the point kinfolk @jaxhidalgo was making). And also, there is work in Whiteness Studies that helpfully compliments the work of BIPoC.

So, like most things in my life, it's a genuine wrestling.