Authenticating Whiteness

Rachel E. Dubrofsky argues that mainstream media consistently casts white people as trustworthy, honest, and familiar, and that these portrayals are so routine they pass as ordinary. On television, in film, across social networks, and in the news, white figures appear sincere and spontaneous, and their speech, looks, and behavior all reinforce that impression. Dubrofsky contends that this manufactured authenticity is a tactic of whiteness and must be read against the backdrop of white supremacy.

The book shows how ideas about what is natural, virtuous, and wholesome are built into media content, where they acquire racial meaning without being openly labeled as racial. A particular focus is the way white women are framed as most genuine when they seem to give up control, expressing feeling through emotional and bodily displays.

The chapters take up a varied set of cases: newspaper coverage of Donald J. Trump, a selfie taken at Auschwitz, Miley Cyrus's music videos, the television series UnREAL, the widely circulated video of Amy Cooper calling the police on an innocent Black man, and the documentary Miss Americana. By tracing patterns that recur across these different forms, the author considers what they reveal about the wider culture that produces them. At its core, the book asks who is allowed to be authentic and what follows from that.