Introduction: Hopes of and for Whiteness

Abstract

This article introduces and explores two intersections between hope and whiteness: first, how various forms of hope alternately operate as discursive techniques that reproduce or resist whiteness; and second, whether theorists have warrant to hope for changes in whiteness itself. In order to prompt further study of both, I survey literature to propose seven dimensions for comparing forms of hope. I then apply this incipient typology of hopes to ethnographic evidence of white people who relocated to live in predominantly Black neighborhoods. I argue that their modes of hope transformed to become less agentic, less optimistic, and less conformed to white supremacist modes of hope. I close with a reflexive look at the place of hope in whiteness studies itself, pointing to two possible foundations of hoping for better future possibilities of whiteness.

Unlearning hope: White Christian encounters with grace as a logic of exchange

“…Menninger, 1959; Snyder, 2002). More recently, scholars, including a growing number of anthropologists, have understood hope as a complex, culturally inflected, and multidimensional aspect of human life (Averill & Sundararajan, 2004; Crapanzano, 2003; Jeske, 2022; Kleist & Jansen, 2016; Kwon, 2022; Lopez et al, 2003; Mattingly, 2010; Miyazaki & Swedberg, 2017; Webb, 2013). I examine hopes as the socially mediated ways in which humans regard possibilities that are to some extent unknowable.…”

“…Hopes involve discursive techniques, affective and embodied responses, and narratives that attempt to make sense of past, present, and future. As I presented in previous research, hopes differ along many dimensions, including means of transmission, agentic prescriptiveness, optimism, effects, telos, warrant, and tenacity (Jeske, 2022). In this article, I describe encounters with a particular form of exchange that prompted changes in hope most evident along the latter three dimensions.…”

“…This manifests clearly in the field of racism. White supremacy has often relied on techniques of hope to obscure reality and maintain dominance (De La Torre, 2017; Jeske, 2022; Kwon, 2022). As a Black protagonist discovers in Ellison's (1995) Invisible Man , White supremacy is designed to “hope him to death and keep him running” (194).…”

“…This question matters because, as other authors in this issue attest, there are many ways to hope. Hope is a multidimensional phenomenon with infinite variety (Jeske, 2022). Furthermore, the ways in which people hope are dialectically formative with their responses to injustices such as racism (Jeske, 2022; Kwon, 2022).…”

“…Hope is a multidimensional phenomenon with infinite variety (Jeske, 2022). Furthermore, the ways in which people hope are dialectically formative with their responses to injustices such as racism (Jeske, 2022; Kwon, 2022). In this article, I extend research on hope by analyzing one factor that influenced the ways in which people hope in the face of unyielding racial injustice.…”