Foreword: The End of White Innocence
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Talking About Racism: When Honesty Feels Like Too
much to Bear
Chapter 1: The Letter: Dear White America
Chapter 2: Dear Nigger Professor
Chapter 3: Risking the White Self
Chapter 4: Accepting the Gift
Notes
Index
About the Author
George Yancy is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 18 books. He is known for his influential essays and interviews in the New York Times' philosophy column, The Stone. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Direct and honest, Yancy’s delineations of white violence, white
indifference, and white naïveté are both thoughtful and
discomforting.”
*Publishers Weekly*
For all readers with the courage and care to act for racial and
social justice.
*Library Journal*
For a professional philosopher to communicate such deep rawness and
suffering is, quite simply, astounding.
*Tikkun Magazine*
Searing, honest, and Unflagging in its pursuit of
understanding.
*Foreword Reviews*
Rather than just acknowledging modern-day American racism, Yancy
implores white readers to face the truth of their own bigotry, the
privilege of their whiteness, and the ways that this whiteness
inherently dehumanizes and endangers black people. . . . Yancy asks
white readers to fundamentally question their sense of self, to
accept the ugliness of the whiteness inherent in them. This is a
monumental, incredibly difficult intellectual task. . . . Backlash
is an honest, smart, and thoughtful book. . .
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
This is a timely account of how raising the issue of racism to a
white public can bring out the worst of humanity: hate. . . . It is
not an easy book to read, no matter what your cultural and racial
heritage, because it is unutterably sad that we need such a book in
2018. But we do require such an analysis of racism, and its
concomitant ally whiteness. It is ubiquitous and rather insidious
in all forms of social life, from the White House to the trailer
park. Yancy gives heartfelt, yet courageous, insight into how the
vitriol from whites stirred his humanity to be proactive, and seek
further ways to reach the unreachable.
*CHOICE*
“George Yancy’s courageous appeal to White America “to confront the
problem of whiteness; to cultivate a critical awareness of the
specter of whiteness and white privilege that each one of you
inherits” elicited a remarkable range of responses, some hideous
beyond words, some welcoming what he rightly called a “gift.” This
eloquent meditation on the events and their meaning calls on us,
with piercing honesty, to think hard, and work hard, to excise the
malignancy of white supremacy from our culture and our lives.”
*Noam Chomsky*
“Backlash is a decisive intervention on a hugely important topic by
a very courageous thinker. Highly recommended.”
*Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor, The New School for Social
Research*
“Although fighting racism is one of the beliefs of our liberal
society, not only astute social critics but also thousands of
“ordinary” people clearly experience the falsity of the predominant
liberal dogmas. Yancy conclusively demonstrates how we should move
far beyond the liberal attacks on alt-right neocons towards asking
the key question: to what degree the conservative backlash was made
possible by the silences and compromises of the liberal perspective
itself. No politically correct language policy can effectively
disturb actual relations of domination and power. For this fact
alone, Backlash deserves to become a classic.”
*Slavoj Žižek*
"Through his wisdom, his research, and his lived experience, George
Yancy has provided us with a thought-provoking example of the
impact of racism in America: personally and impersonally,
individually and collectively. Yancy deconstructs racism in a
powerful way, and deepens our understanding by sharing his personal
experience. All Americans can learn from reading this
text. White Americans, and for that matter members of any
dominant group, should especially treat this book as a special
gift."
*Howard J. Ross, founder and chief learning officer of Cook Ross
Inc., a diversity consulting company, and author of Everyday Bias
and Reinventing Diversity*
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