Like father, white son: exploring the intergenerational transfer of whiteness and white supremacy within a white working-class father-son relationship

Abstract

Through the lens of a white working-class son's personal experience, this project examines how a white working-class father participated in the construction of his son's identity as white and white supremacist as a practice of fathering in the United States. This is accomplished through the autoethnographic exploration of personal narrative written by the son on being taught whiteness and white supremacy by his father over the course of his growing-up. This qualitative project employs racial formation theory as an overarching lens to consider white working-class fathering as a racial project. Emergent themes from this research include A (white) Man's Home is his Castle; Teaching the White Desire to Dominate; and Privileging and insulating white male relationship. Through this project's findings, the researcher hopes to suggest new ways for intervening in the unconscious and usually private reproduction of whiteness and white supremacy for white working-class males in the U.S.