Whiteness in Aged Care and Death Management

In the Western world, late-stage capitalist neoliberalism in the form of corporate neo-colonization, in combination with the legacy of professionalization in the funeral industry, has resulted in both positive discrimination toward those who are perceived/experienced as “White” and negative discrimination and discriminatory practices against those who are perceived/experienced as either/both non-White or not White “enough.” Whiteness encompasses a range of cultural and social norms for both aged care and death care, which include, but are not limited to, reinforcing and regulating binary gender conformity; judgment of grief and grief practices; access to services, infrastructures, and supports; financial inequity (including White privilege discounts and color/gender “taxes”); social and cultural recognition of personal and familial needs, values, and practices; and basic respect and dignity. This chapter examines and critically discusses the effects of the corporate and the hegemonic professional in the separate yet firmly linked arenas of aged and death care, with a particular lens on intersectionality as it pertains to individual and family cultures where Whiteness, ability, personal identity, religion, and social capital intersect.