Challenging the status quo? Whiteness in the Diversity Management Literature

This study presents three perspectives on whiteness—interrogating, re-centering, and masking whiteness—that have important implications for power in organizations. Through a textual analysis of diversity management articles, the author illustrates how one of these perspectives, interrogating whiteness, works to name, unmask, and de-center whiteness, bringing to light hidden assumptions about difference. The second perspective, re-centering whiteness, appears progressive because difference is recognized, yet ultimately, whiteness remains center stage, resulting in superficial organizational change. The third perspective, masking whiteness, protects whiteness as an invisible norm, actively upholding white privilege. The author discusses the implications of this examination of whiteness for research and practice.