Doing Modernity: Studies in Critical Interactionism

When are persons ‘white’?: on some practical asymmetries of racial reference in talk-in-interaction1 KEVIN A. WHITEHEAD AND GENE H. LERNER UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, USA Discourse & Society Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) www.sagepublications.com Vol 20(5): 613–641 10.1177/0957926509106413 A B S T R A C T This report contributes to the study of racial discourse by examining some of the practical asymmetries that obtain between different categories of racial membership as they are actually employed in talk-in- interaction. In particular, we identify three interactional environments in which the ordinarily ‘invisible’ racial category ‘white’ is employed overtly, and we describe the mechanisms through which this can occur. These mechanisms include: (1) ‘white’ surfacing ‘just in time’ as an account for action; (2) the occurrence of referential ambiguities w...