What's Going on with Whiteness?

This article examines the current state of whiteness studies by surveying four recent books that explore white identity and its complexities in contemporary U.S. culture. It contrasts earlier foundational works from the 1990s with recent scholarship that addresses whiteness through diverse lenses, including media representation, public health, rural poverty, and queercrip theory. The authors analyzed range from Taylor Nygaard and Jorie Lagerwey's critique of progressive white characters in streaming comedies to Jonathan Metzl's public health perspective on conservative white men's political choices, as well as Sarah Robertson's focus on class and environmental issues among poor Southern whites, and Ryan Cartwright's exploration of marginalized rural white queer and disabled subjects. The article highlights tensions in these works between recognizing whiteness's structural brutality and embracing the complexity of white identities, questioning whether contemporary whiteness studies effectively supports coalition-building and nuanced understanding in the 2020s.