For years I was a bit suspicious of the term 'Whiteness Studies', seeing it as an academic subject and discourse deliberately intended to be race-baiting.
In recent times though, I've started to recognise that the TRA cause is pretty much built on whiteism - the colonisation of other sexes, races and even protest movements by...predominantly white males. White Studies academics should be at the forefront of studying, examining and highlighting the very thing that White Studies seeks to
The inherent misogyny, racism and homophobia of TRA's hasn't prevented them from impinging-upon and attempting to colonise everything they eye-up as worthwhile. And leading this charge are dozens-upon-dozens of white males, only too willing to dedicate themselves to a cause that primarily benefits...white males.
Women's rights? Yep, that can be colonised. Children's safeguarding protocols? No problem, they can be corrupted and even disposed-of. Even BLM was deliberately eclipsed by white males insisting that trans-rights for middle-aged white men come before efforts to challenge systemic racism. Challenging the climate crisis? No, they have colonised that movement; witness how The Green Party in England and Wales, and the same in Scotland have been co-opted by this parasitic cause - all interest in combating environmental concerns now a minor issue compared to the number one effort to satisfy white middle-class males who wish to be known as women.
Whiteness studies began through the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote in the 1890's. In the 1990s the key foundation works on the subject were published, from the likes of David Roediger and Ruth Frakenberg, but James Baldwin advanced the discipline enormously in the 1960s.
'Whiteness studies' though has never rightly gained any prominence, amongst either historians or sociologists. Yet, right now, there's clear examples that could be studied, critiqued, investigated, published-on. The snag is, academia is paralysed right now because of cancellation culture. The white males, running rampant through established causes, protest issues and campaigns, are given free reign; they can't be challenged and they can't be stopped from expanding their influence - degrading and toxifying everything they touch.
And so Whiteness Studies, presented with an open goal, has had to turn-away, unable to take the opportunity to enhance their field-of-study, unable to exploit this chance to gain academic respect and credence.
Perhaps future generations of Whiteness Studies professors will be able to look back at this generation of academics in justifiable condescension. I imagine they will write and lecture on how they missed a gold-plated target, in full-view. And rather than study it, they slipped-away, found other less interesting issues to focus-on, terrified that they would be condemned for recognising the most obvious example of white male supremacy seen for over seventy years.