Feeling Privileged: The Shame of Whiteness in Caroline, or Change

Through an analysis of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's musical Caroline, or Change, this article identifies shame as an affective response to white privilege that has the political potential to challenge systemic racism. In contrast to most scholarship on Caroline, or Change, the article focuses on the character of Rose rather than on Caroline or Rose's stepson, Noah. Rose implements a rule to help her avoid the shame she feels when confronting the socio-economic disparity between her family and their maid, Caroline. This rule incites the plot's conflict, providing the musical a dramatic and political centre that deserves further analysis. In its analysis of Rose's shame, this article offers a theoretical outline of the temporality of shame that differentiates it from guilt. Doing so, the article illuminates how Caroline, or Change challenges systemic racism by identifying white privilege as immanently iterated in the present.