White Skin
White people, rather than being a straightforward description of skin color, is a term denoting a specific set of ethnic groups and functions as a color metaphor for race.
The definition of "white person" differs according to geographical and historical context. Various social constructions of whiteness have had implications in terms of national identity, consanguinity, public policy, religion, population statistics, racial segregation, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization and racial quotas. The concept has been applied with varying degrees of formality and internal consistency in disciplines including sociology, politics, genetics, biology, medicine, biomedicine, language, culture and law.
Read more about White Skin: History of The Term, Census and Social Definitions in Different Regions
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or skin:
“Black women ... work because their husbands can’t make enough money at their jobs to keep everything going.... They don’t go to work to find fulfillment, or adventure, or glamour and romance, like so many white women think they are doing. Black women work out of necessity.”
—Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994)
“Nor skin nor hide nor fleece
shall cover you,
nor curtain of crimson nor fine
shelter of cedar-wood be over you,
nor the fir-tree
nor the pine.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)