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  • 2023-01-17 (xsd:date)
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  • Was the Norwegian Government Funding Research in 2023 To Find Out if White Paint Is Racist? (en)
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  • A grant funded by the Research Council of Norway explores, in part, the impact Norway's invention of titanium white paint has had on perceptions of whiteness around the world. Titled How Norway Made the World Whiter, or NorWhite for short, the project is headed by University of Bergen history of architecture Professor Ingrid Halland. It attempts to tie various threads of whiteness to the Norwegian invention of titanium dioxide pigment, as described on her website: The project immediately drew the ire of self-declared waste ombudsman Are Søberg, a blogger who is critical of Norwegian state spending on cultural projects. After this publicity, outlets that commonly object to perceived wokeness in academia promoted the story heavily. For example, The Post Millennial ran with the headline, The Norwegian Government Is Funding Research to Find Out If White Paint is Racist. That description of the project, which went viral and has been re-shared by other outlets, is an imprecise description of the project. However, it is not entirely without merit. According to lead investigator Halland, the project is not about racist attitudes today. But rather the historical context. The subtle difference is nonetheless relevant. The project does not seek to find evidence that the present day use of white paint is racist, but to investigate the possibility that the invention and commercial success of titanium white paint contributed to socially toxic views around race. To that point, Halland describes archival research showing advertising posters from the 20s that connect the color white to human purity, and thus also to skin colour. It is clear, however, from both post-doctoral job descriptions and Halland's previous research on the topic that white paint and socially toxic views are plausibly linked. In a January 2023 article published in the academic journal Aggregate, Halland and her co-author wrote: An expired job posting for a post-doctoral research position funded by the grant is more explicit about the link between white paint and racism: Because NorWhite is a real research grant funded by the government of Norway that, in part, investigates how white paint has contributed to social views of whiteness, but also because the project is not literally asking if white paint itself is racist, Snopes rates this claim Mostly True. (en)
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