Understanding whiteness part 25: White stereotypes, advertising, and gentrification

Of course, white people can be stereotyped too – by a range of factors including gender, class, accent, sexuality, nationality, physical appearance, to name a few. But overarching whiteness itself is curiously free of the stereotyping trap. Of course, there are accusations thrown at white people designed to poke fun at whiteness: not being able to season chicken properly, having no rhythm, that kind of thing. But really, the only stereotype that generic whiteness has adopted is one of being in a default position of social control. When you strip it all back, whiteness suffers from the stereotype of privilege.

I’ll share a personal example.

Since the end of 2021, my career took a few twists that took me away from the tram lines of secondary education into a few different areas. Writing, journalism, consultancy and training, and broadcast journalism. I won’t go into the details but a few chance encounters led to my being part of a presenting duo on a BBC Radio 4 music programme called Add To Playlist. This meant that a significant part of my working week suddenly involved heading to Broadcasting House in central London and entering one of the oldest media institutions in the world, to create radio gold, as it’s called.

I could see the confusion.