Catherine Orr Reflection

Professor Catherine Orr teaches critical identity studies at Beloit College in Wisconsin. She says when she discusses whiteness her white students see race as, “What other people have.” Is this to say that they see themselves as having no race? Race is something other people have, but not me. While I don’t believe this, entirely, I do understand it. For me I don’t identify myself as being white, until I am asked directly, from a questionnaire. But, normally me being white it is not something I think much about.
I remember when I was a little kid my dad would say, “We’re English! Not white!” I didn’t really understand what race was. And, once I did know, I didn’t see why it mattered much, because it is something we are born with and have no choice in the matter.
In class when our teacher said something along the lines of, she doesn’t understand when people say they don’t see race. It’s funny because I said this exact thing a few months ago. I was taking community health a public health nursing course and we were asked to tell the name age and race of our clients and what we were working on with them. When it was my turn I said her name, age and started talking about
I have been made fun of for being so white, my friend said she used to think pale people were sick. I spent hours trying to get tan and I only got freckles, since then I have completely given up on tanning. Now I wear sunscreen and hats in the sun, whatever I am white. Being white is not something I am proud of or celebrate like I see other cultures do. We don’t come from a specific place, or have a specific food (apple pie maybe?), our history is shameful and almost embarrassing. Catherine Orr says she is very white and has white tastes. I don’t even know what that is, and I am white! I will have to google white foods and white activities because I have no idea what they