Difference between revisions of "Washing something white or pink or green"

Latest revision as of 13:48, 1 November 2015

There are three rather popular concepts regarding "washing" something. These are whitewashing, pinkwashing and greenwashing.

These three are quite different from each other. They are actually examples of three different facets of categorism. Each can be generalized to apply to almost any focus of categorism.

Whitewashing, such as putting white actors in the roles of historical persons of color... this is actually a matter of reinforcing the mainstream norm and zero-category. We could call it normwashing. And it would include straightwashing, ciswashing, youthwashing and so on as well.

Pinkwashing, such as sweeping racism under the rug by putting emphasis on one's lack of homophobia... this kind of playing out different foci of categorism against each other could be called tolerancewashing.

Greenwashing, sweeping things under the rug by appealing for one's (supposed) caring for the environment... this kind of "causewashing" isn't limited to environmentalism. When it is done to excuse a foci of categorism, it becomes a facet of categorism.

We should keep using the words whitewashing, pinkwashing and greenwashing. But we should also see them as parts of larger patterns.