The veil of professionalism: An autoethnographic critique of white positional identities in the figured worlds of white research performance

Abstract

Two white researchers critique the professional veil of silence they created as they reflected on a qualitative study they performed 12 years earlier. Autoethnography and performance ethnography are utilized to examine the ways in which whiteness can remain unexamined throughout the research process due to the construction of white positional identities within the figured world of research. White privilege and white talk, specifically white silence and hyperpoliteness as they relate to white researchers conducting research, are used critique the research purpose and process. The researchers conclude that white researchers should attend to questions of privilege and white racial identity as they plan, conduct, and disseminate their research.