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Constructing Whiteness: Voices from the Gentrified Old West End

Northrup, Jenny Lee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1271180818

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, Sociology.
The emancipatory city thesis suggests that, through gentrification, communities become more diverse, tolerant, and socially cohesive (Caulfield 1989; Caulfield 1994; Lees 2000; Lees, Slater, and Wyly 2008). However, this research illustrates that, amongst a sample of whites living in the diverse and gentrifying neighborhood of the Old West End in Toledo, Ohio, racial identities are formulated on white advantage and dominance. Through in-depth interviews with 10 Old West End residents, this research suggests that white identities are experienced, constructed, maintained, and projected through the discursive frames of privilege, exclusion, racialized space, and gentrification. This research advocates for increasing interaction between people of different races, the construction of language with which to talk about race, and the creation of safe spaces in which to talk about race. Additionally, this research pinpoints a need for whites to become race aware, and to individually and collectively acknowledge their positions of power and challenge the racist ideologies which uphold those positions. Until these ideologies are challenged by whites and non-whites alike, social relations in and out of urban settings will continue to be hierarchical and littered with unnecessary and misguided accusations of blame.
Barbara Chesney, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Julian Brash, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Mark Sherry, PhD (Committee Member)
134 p.
Social Psychology; Sociology
gentrification; Old West End; whiteness; white privilege; exclusion; racialized space

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Northrup, J. L. (2010). Constructing Whiteness: Voices from the Gentrified Old West End [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1271180818

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Northrup, Jenny. Constructing Whiteness: Voices from the Gentrified Old West End. 2010. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1271180818.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Northrup, Jenny. "Constructing Whiteness: Voices from the Gentrified Old West End." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1271180818

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1271180818
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© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.