ORCID
0000-0001-8681-5697
Document Type
Research Article
Abstract
This essay deepens the analysis of whiteness-as-dominion recently advanced by political theorist Ella Myers. Drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois, Myers focuses on the role that ideas of ownership and possession play in white racial identity. While I am persuaded that ownership and whiteness are cojoined, ownership does not necessarily imply control, although the former may be a prerequisite for the latter. I therefore argue that the idea of white dominion can be enhanced by paying greater attention to practices of racial control. More specifically, I focus on racialized modes of labor control via scientific management, or what recent scholars describe as “whiteness-as-management.” Understanding racial capitalism through the lens of control helps us see the tactics that are used to create and maintain racial identity and dominion.