Whitewashing history : social constructions of whiteness in Armstrong, B.C., 1890-1930 ...

• Main Author: Bourgeois, Robyn S.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0091538; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0091538

This thesis examines the social construction of white racial identities in the small, rural British Columbia community of Armstrong during the time period 1890-1930. Focusing on public documents - newspapers and the minutes and legislation of the local city councils – I utilize an intersectional framework, incorporating critical race, feminist, anti-colonial, Marxist, and queer theory and scholarship to critically interrogate the construction of whiteness and its dominant status in Armstrong. Employing critical discourse analysis, this thesis dissects how whiteness was raced, classed, gendered, and sexualized within the public discourse of the community. My analysis of whiteness follows three major themes: land, morality, and weddings. In my discussion of land use, I demonstrate how racialized constructions of land use, which demonstrated the superior nature of white land use and the inferior nature of Chinese and First Nations land use, were employed by white Armstrong to affirm and reaffirm their dominant ...