This article examines the impact the category of ‘whiteness’ has on individual
interpretations of the American Dream. Via twenty-five life-history interviews,
this article presents how US military male Veterans have varying interpretations
of the collective idea according to their ethnic and racial background. The
evidence presented in this article shows that the idea of the American Dream has
racial dimensions or aspects. It suggests that ‘whiteness’ is taken-for-granted
in this symbolic idea. For most ethnic minority respondents, this association
between American Dream and ‘whiteness’ places them in a position to straddle the
boundaries of American-ness and Otherness. This has implications in their
everyday lives and sense of belonging. This article highlights a wider question
regarding the extent ‘race’ shapes the boundaries of American national
identity.
AllenT. (1994) The
Invention of the White Race.New York:
Verso.
2.
BackL. (2002)
‘Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? The Political Morality of
Investigating Whiteness in the Gray Zone’, in
WareV., and BackL. (editors) Out of
Whiteness.Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
3.
BedollaL.G. (2003)
‘The Identity Paradox: Latino Language, Politics and
Selective Dissassociation’Latino Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2,
pp. 264–283.
4.
BellahR.N., MADSENR., SULLIVANW.H., SWIDLERA., and TIPTONS.M. (1991) The Good
Society.New York:
Knopf.
5.
BellahR.N., MADSENR., SULLIVANW.H., SWIDLERA., and TIPTONS.M. (1996) Habits of
the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life,
updated edition. Berkeley:
California University
Press.
6.
BrodkinK. (1998) How Jews
Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America.New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press.
7.
BulmerM. (editor) (1982)
Social Research Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert
Participation.London: Macmillan
Press.
8.
BurgessR. (1984) In the
Field: An Introduction to Field Research.London: Allan and
Unwin.
9.
CohenA. P. (1985) The
Symbolic Construction of Community.London: Ellis Harwood/Tavistock
[subsequently Routledge].
10.
DuboisW.E.B.1903 [1989] The Souls of Black Folks.New York: Bantam
Classic.
11.
EnloeC. (2000) Maneuvers:
The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives.Berkeley: University of
California Press.
FrankenbergR. (1993) The Social
Construction of Whiteness: White Women, Race Matters.Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
14.
FrankenbergR. (1997)
‘Introduction: Local Whitenesses, Localising
Whiteness’ in FrankenbergR. (editor) Displacing
Whiteness.Durham: Duke University
Press, pp.
1–33.
15.
GuttmanA. (1992).
‘Foreword’, in
TaylorC.Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition: An Essay.New Jersey: Princeton University
Press.
16.
HarstockN.C.M. (1987)
‘The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a
Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism’ in
HardingS. (editor) Feminism and
Methodology.Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, pp.
157–180.
17.
HochschildJ.L. (1995) Facing Up
to the American Dream: Race, Class and the Soul of the Nation.Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
18.
HoldawayS. (1982) ‘An
Insider Job: A Case Study of Covert Research on the Police’
in BulmerM. (editor) Social Research
Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert Participation.London: MacMillan
Press, pp.
59–79.
19.
Hooksb. (1995) Killing
Rage.New York: Owl
Books.
20.
IgnatievN. (1995) How the
Irish Became White.New York:
Routledge.
21.
JacobsonM. F. (1998)
Whiteness of a Different Color.Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
22.
JasperJ.M. (2000) Restless
Nation: Starting Over in America.Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
23.
JenkinsR. (1996) Social
Identity.London:
Routledge.
24.
JenkinsR. (1997) Rethinking
Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations.London: Sage
Publications.
25.
KohnH. (1957) American
Nationalism.New York: Macmillan
Company.
26.
MAC AN GHAILL, M.
(1999) Contemporary Racisms and Ethnicities: Social and
cultural transformations.Buckingham: Open University
Press.
27.
MacdonaldS. (1987).
‘Drawing the Lines - Gender, Peace, and War: An
Introduction’, in MacdonaldS., HoldenP., and ArdenerS. (editors). Images of Women in
Peace and War, Houndsmill:
Macmillan, pp.
1–26.
28.
MarvinC., and INGLED.W. (1999) Blood
Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag.Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
29.
MasseyD. S., and DENTONN.A. (1993) American
Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
30.
MemmiA. (1990) The
Colonizer and the Colonized.London:
Earthscan (first published
1957).
31.
MorrisonT. (1998)
‘From Playing in the Dark’, in
RoedigerD. R. (editor) Black on White:
Black Writers on What It Means to be White.New York: Schocken
Books, pp.
155–159.
32.
O'LEARYC. (1999) To Die For:
The Paradox of American Patriotism.Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
33.
OlsonJ. (1998). ‘The
Democratic Problem of the White Citizen’, Paper presented at 1998
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston [3-6
September 1998].
34.
OmiM., and WINANTH. (1994). Racial
Formation in the United States, 2nd edition.London:
Routledge.
35.
PerinC. (1977) Everything
in its Place: Social Order and Land Use in America.Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
36.
PerinC. (1988) Belonging
in America: Reading Between the Lines.Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press.
37.
RatherD. (2000) The
American Dream: Stories from the Heart of our Nation.New York: William
Morrow.
38.
RingerB. (1983) ‘We the
People’ and Others: Duality and America's Treatment of its Racial
Minorities.New York:
Tavistock.
39.
RoedigerD. R. (1991) Wages of
Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class.New York:
Verso.
40.
RoedigerD.R. (1998) Black on
White: Black Writers on What it Means to Be White.New York: Schocken
Books.
41.
SennettR., and COBBJ. (1972) The Hidden
Injuries of Class.Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
42.
SennettR. (1998) The
Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New
Capitalism.New York:
Norton.
43.
TaylorC. (1992)
Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition.New Jersey: Princeton University
Press.
44.
TerkelS. (1980) American
Dreams: Lost and Found.London: Hodder and
Stoughton.
45.
TuanM. (1998) Forever
Foreigners or Honorary Whites? The Asian Ethnic Experience Today.New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press.
46.
TurnerV. (1969) The Ritual
Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.Ithaca: Cornell University
Press.
47.
WalzerM. (1996) What It
Means to be an American: Essays on the American Experience.New York:
Marsilio.
48.
WareV., and BACKL. (2001) Out of
Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture.Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
49.
WellmanD. T. (1977)
Portraits of White Racism,
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
50.
YoungI.M. (1990) Justice
and the Politics of Difference.New Jersey: Princeton University
Press.
51.
Yuval-DavisN. (1997) Gender and
Nation.London: Sage
Publications.
