A Critical Archaeology Of White Privileges Of Social Reformers

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Critical Archaeologies of Whiteness", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Most social reformers were Anglo-American middle-class whites, who found they could not impose their privileged racist and classist ideas of “proper” housekeeping, cooking and mothering etc. on poor whites, minorities and immigrants, because participation in reform programs was voluntary. Amazingly, reform women quoted negative as well as positive feedback by participants and changed or eliminated programs in response. Because the goal of reformers was creation of community, they lived in poor neighborhoods and created new institutions in urban landscapes, some of which continue to provide social services today. Reform leader Jane Addams discussed how her views and actions changed as her eyes were opened by the process of hearing feedback from participants in programs. Some reform women's social settlements made early statements valuing diversity in immigrant cultures and advocating two-way cultural exchanges, which is a method of subverting white privileges that could still be used today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Critical Archaeologies of Whiteness

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow