Abstract
The invisibility of whiteness has been shown to perpetuate racial inequality. Scholars of whiteness claim that to make the invisible become visible is a way to deconstruct white racial dominance and hegemony. However, despite this importance, whiteness theory has been left out of mainstream sociology due to the lack of quantitative and empirical research (Hartmann, Gerteis and Croll 2009). This study uses data from the American mosaic project, a nationally representative telephone survey, to quantitatively test the invisibility of whiteness. Further, to provide strength to the argument of intersectionality theorists, that race cannot be understood separated from gender and class (Brewer 1993), this study tests how the invisibility of whiteness is influenced by intersections of race, class, gender and education. It also includes interaction variables that reveal how the influence of class, gender and education differ across races. The study finds that each of the presented independent variables do significantly influence the invisibility of whiteness and that these statuses influence the invisibility of whiteness differently for whites and nonwhites.