pygame collision detection problem

Hi, I am creating a simple game. For a bit now I have been trying to add collision detection. I am trying to use the colliderect() function to detect the collision but I get the error

AttributeError: 'rectangle' object has no attribute 'colliderect'
Script terminated

when using these lines to detect the collision

if player.colliderect(white_rect):
    screen.fill(BLACK)

both white_rect and player have rect methods.

if you want it here is my full (though a bit simplified) code

import pygame, sys
pygame.init()
def main():
    class rectangle(pygame.sprite.Sprite):
        def __init__(self, image_file, location):
            self.image = pygame.image.load(image_file)
            self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
            self.location = location
            self.currentX = location[0]
            self.currentY = location[1]
            
            
    class player(pygame.sprite.Sprite):
        def __init__(self, location, speed, image_file):
            self.image = pygame.image.load(image_file)
            self.speed = speed
            self.start_location = location
            self.currentX = location[0]
            self.currentY = location[1]
            self.keydownA = False
            self.keydownD = False
            self.keydownSPACE = False
            self.jumping = False
            self.jumpY = location[1]
            self.jump_direction = 1 # 1 = going up, 0 = going down
            self.jumpspeed = 20
            self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
        def detectMoving(self):
            for event in pygame.event.get():
                if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                    sys.exit()
                if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                    if event.key == pygame.K_a:
                        self.keydownA = True
                    if event.key == pygame.K_d:
                        self.keydownD = True
                    if event.key == pygame.K_SPACE:
                        self.keydownSPACE = True
                    
                        
                            
                
                if event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
                    if event.key == pygame.K_a:
                        self.keydownA = False
                    if event.key == pygame.K_d:
                        self.keydownD = False
                    if event.key == pygame.K_SPACE:
                        self.keydownSPACE = False
            
        def move(self):
            if self.keydownA == True:
                self.currentX -= self.speed
            if self.keydownD == True:
                self.currentX += self.speed
        def jump(self):
                 if self.jumping == False:
                    self.jumpY = self.currentY
                 if self.keydownSPACE == True:
                    self.jumping = True
                 if self.jumping == True:
                        self.currentY -= self.jumpspeed
                        self.jumpspeed -= 1
                 if self.currentY == self.jumpY:
                    self.jumping = False
                    self.jumpspeed = 20
    running = True
    WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
    BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
    white_rect_sprite = ("white_rect.png")
    player_sprite = ("player_sprite.png")
    white_rect = rectangle(white_rect_sprite, (400, 480 - 130))
    player = player([250, 480 - 145], 3, player_sprite)
    screen = pygame.display.set_mode((640, 480), 0, 32)
    pygame.display.set_caption("My Platformer")
    
    
    
    while running:
        player.detectMoving()
        player.move()
        player.jump()
        screen.fill(BLACK)
        screen.blit(white_rect.image, (white_rect.currentX, white_rect.currentY))
        screen.blit(player.image, (player.currentX, player.currentY))
#---------collision detection-----
        if player.colliderect(white_rect):
            screen.fill(BLACK)
        pygame.display.flip()
main()

thanks in advance!