Main articles: Critical race theory and Whiteness studies
Critical race theory takes, as one of its founding influences, the nonfiction essays of James Baldwin, who argued that Whiteness was a fictional category, a construct without reference to any culture at all except for the purposes of domination and genocide. Scholars such as David Roediger, Paul Gilroy, and others have based some of their work on this notion.
As whites, especially White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or WASPs, are the dominant racial and cultural group, according to sociologist Steven Seidman, writing from a critical theory perspective, "White culture constitutes the general cultural mainstream, causing non-White culture to be seen as deviant, in either a positive or negative manner. Moreover, Whites tend to be disproportionately represented in powerful positions, controlling almost all political, economic, and cultural institutions."
Yet, according to Seidman, Whites are most commonly unaware of their "privilege" and the manner in which their culture has always been dominant in the US, as they do not identify as members of a specific racial group but rather incorrectly perceive their views and culture as "raceless", when in fact it is ethno-national (ethnic/cultural) specific, with a racial base component.[33]
