“Whiteness” is a social construct devised by elite European men who convinced poor European men that their social, economic plight was created by those of African descent to increase their wealth while laying the seeds of a social cancer that has metastasized throughout the fabric of American society. Constructing Whiteness connects the dots that reveal its origins.
“Whiteness,” as it relates to race, is a social construct aimed at benefiting a small few to the detriment cost of many. Using the colonial legal system, Constructing Whiteness will trace the origins of a social system that was intentionally designed to give privilege to one group over the negation of the humanity of another. This docudrama traces the origin of “race” in America.
Centering on colonial Jamestown, Virginia, this project will explore early court rulings along with new laws enacted by the House of Burgess to strike a wedge between small farmers and indentured servants of European and African descent predicated upon skin color.
Contrary to popular belief, the first documented Africans arriving in colonial Virginia in 1619 were not enslaved people in the manner that they later became known. These new arrivals were incorporated into the preexisting indentured servant system. Constructing Whiteness explores the social order between Africans and Englishmen and women throughout the greater part of the 17th century. Africans and Europeans lived, worked, played, prayed, and entered holy matrimony together.
Beginning in 1681, a series of new laws were enacted gradually peeled away the humanity of Africans while granting new privileges to poor Europeans. The invention of whiteness among poor Europeans forged a social wedge between the poor. This resulted in a divisive social order that is with us to this very day.
