PPL OF COLOR
"Everytime you ask a question you get the impression they aren't thinking so much about what the honest answer is, but about what answer would make them look best. The truth doesn't enter into it, unless it happens to coincide with their own best interests." - Andy Rooney
Jeff Wiles
What does it mean to be "White" in America?
My portfolio wasn’t originally intended as a project around the subject of what it means to be white. Rather, it is a collection of images (taken over a period of about ten years) that I believe speaks, individually and as a group, to the issues of race and racism that still pervade our society. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s in a rural Pennsylvania area where the number of non-white residents could be counted on one hand, I’ve spent the rest of my life countering early ingrained feelings and stereotypes. Sometimes feeling superior; sometimes inferior. Sometimes glad to be white; sometimes sorry. Unconsciously perhaps, photography has helped me understand what it means to be non-white.