Locating Traitorous Identities: Toward a View of Privilege-Cognizant White Character

Abstract

I address the problem of how to locate “traitorous” subjects, or those who belong to dominant groups yet resist the usual assumptions and practices of those groups. I argue that Sandra Harding's description of traitors as insiders, who “become marginal” is misleading. Crafting a distinction between “privilege-cognizant” and “privilege-evasive” white scripts, I offer an alternative account of race traitors as privilege-cognizant whites who refuse to animate expected whitely scripts, and who are unfaithful to worldviews whites are expected to hold.