Introduction: Bill Moore's Body 1. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness 2. Law and Order: Civil Rights Laws and White Privilege 3. Immigrant Labor and Identity Politics 4. Whiteness and War 5. How Whiteness Works: Inheritance, Wealth, and Health 6. White Desire: Remembering Robert Johnson 7. Lean on Me: Beyond Identity Politics 8. "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac": Antiblack Racism and White Identity 9. "Frantic to Join...the Japanese Army": Beyond the Black-White Binary 10. California: The Mississippi of the 1990s Notes Acknowledgments [to come] Index
An unflinching look at white supremacy revealing the many ways that white people profit from identity politics and group privileges
George Lipsitz is Professor of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of A Life in the Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition (Temple), Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s, Dangerous Crossroads, and Time Passages.
"Traversing a remarkably broad terrain of American social, political, and cultural history from the colonial period to the present, Lipsitz interrogates as an idiom of privilege and gain--a shared "investment" whose dividends for generations have accrued to white liberals, and white reactionaries alike... Building on the powerful logic and commitment of [the] opening discussion ... Lipsitz takes a variety of angles on the workings of whiteness... All of these discussions are productive; some of them are dazzling...These narrative turns create the dual impression that, first, there is virtually no corner of American politics, society, or culture where the discerning eye will fail to discover evidence of "race" and its workings; and, second, anywhere Lipsitz casts his gaze he will find something interesting and insightful to say. I have cause to question neither conclusion. This is a terrifically important book." Matthew Frye Jacobson, American Historical Review "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness is the product of painstaking research and rigorous analysis. It is a work of integrity that expresses indignation at the injustices to which some in society would like us to become inured. Lipsitz demolishes the smug homilies of the so-called neoconservative approach to race. His spirited writing recaptures a fire that has come close to being extinguished in this era. This is scholarship informed by a moral commitment now rarely seen, and often discredited, in the ivory tower. Lipsitz overturns the apple cart of comfortable resignation and brings us face-to-face with how the past has structured the painful racial issues of our day." Brenda Gayle Plummer, The Annals of the American Academy "This year, I am recommending only one book--George Lipsitz;s The Possessive Investment in Whiteness... Lipsitz is best known for showing how popular culture and the changing fortunes of the working class and people of color transformed the United States after World War II. This new book brings together his fierce passion for racial justice with his talent for cultural analysis." Susan Douglas, The Progressive.
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