Reflection
Matt Wray's Not Quite White does an excellent job of bringing the (hidden) history of whiteness to the forefront of readers minds, especially in the context of cultural studies. But I don't believe the text manages this on solely through the organization of its content but through the choices and uses of its language. The read was engaging and clear while ideas and theory complex.
What was perhaps most interesting was the ideas regarding Boundary Theory. It was a theory I was not otherwise familiar with but Wray introduces its purpose as a way of, "asking how categories shape our perceptions of the world" (7). And while meaning is derived from difference, I then began to ask myself what difference does the difference make? I do not think the classification and categorization of our surroundings and selves is in itself negative; however, Wray's work does give me pause to contemplate the uses and abuses that this classification practice and how it evolves over time and history.
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