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Anatomy of Racism
Essays examine the conceptual nature of racism, and trace the history of its attempts at scientific, philosophical, political, legal, and cultural expression.
- GenresAnthropologyHistory
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
David Theo Goldberg
30 books19 followers*Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the University of California system-wide research facility for the human sciences and theoretical research in the arts.
*Professor of Comparative Literature and of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute
*Professor of Comparative Literature and of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 28, 2025
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2.5 Stars
Feelings about the book:
- A pretty decent anthology, although I struggled to engage with it at times. It is one of those books that will get a few rereads in my lifetime.
Premise/Plot:
- Anatomy of Racism explores how racism operates not simply as individual prejudice but as a systemic, cultural, and institutional force deeply embedded in the fabric of modern societies.
- This book intrinsically examines the structures that produce and normalise racial inequality.
Themes:
- Institutional racism, adaptable oppression, moral, ethics, class, nationalism and more
Pros:
- Looking at race through the intersection of class and nationality was insightful
Cons:
- Dense, abstract and theoretical
- Big variety in the engagement and the quality of essays.
Quotes:
‘There is growing recognition now, though hardly universal, that racist discourse is more chameleonic in its nature, in some ways more subtle in its modes of expression, and more central to the modern self-conception than the traditional view allows.’
‘Racism is the reduction of the cultural to the biological, the attempt to make the first dependent on the second.’
‘Must reason therefore be exonerated? Must racism be considered merely a sort of parasite, which lived off reason until finally expelled by it?’
‘Dualism helps create and sustain oppression by enabling it to appear rational.’
‘If we can find the means of eliminating or reducing the general phenomenon of oppression, then we can eliminate or reduce some types of oppression without creating others in their place.’
‘Politically, racism divides the working class and counters the transformative potential of that class.’
‘The culturalism of the new racism has gone hand in hand with a definition of race as a matter of difference rather than a question of hierarchy.’
‘Nationalism and racism become so closely identified that to speak of the nation is to speak automatically in racially exclusive terms.’
‘In the encounter between black settlers and their white inner-city neighbours, black culture has become a class culture.’
2.5 Stars
Feelings about the book:
- A pretty decent anthology, although I struggled to engage with it at times. It is one of those books that will get a few rereads in my lifetime.
Premise/Plot:
- Anatomy of Racism explores how racism operates not simply as individual prejudice but as a systemic, cultural, and institutional force deeply embedded in the fabric of modern societies.
- This book intrinsically examines the structures that produce and normalise racial inequality.
Themes:
- Institutional racism, adaptable oppression, moral, ethics, class, nationalism and more
Pros:
- Looking at race through the intersection of class and nationality was insightful
Cons:
- Dense, abstract and theoretical
- Big variety in the engagement and the quality of essays.
Quotes:
‘There is growing recognition now, though hardly universal, that racist discourse is more chameleonic in its nature, in some ways more subtle in its modes of expression, and more central to the modern self-conception than the traditional view allows.’
‘Racism is the reduction of the cultural to the biological, the attempt to make the first dependent on the second.’
‘Must reason therefore be exonerated? Must racism be considered merely a sort of parasite, which lived off reason until finally expelled by it?’
‘Dualism helps create and sustain oppression by enabling it to appear rational.’
‘If we can find the means of eliminating or reducing the general phenomenon of oppression, then we can eliminate or reduce some types of oppression without creating others in their place.’
‘Politically, racism divides the working class and counters the transformative potential of that class.’
‘The culturalism of the new racism has gone hand in hand with a definition of race as a matter of difference rather than a question of hierarchy.’
‘Nationalism and racism become so closely identified that to speak of the nation is to speak automatically in racially exclusive terms.’
‘In the encounter between black settlers and their white inner-city neighbours, black culture has become a class culture.’
Want to Read
February 24, 2008"offers perhaps the most complex and thoughtful response in the course of a wide-ranging and, in part, philosophically inspired analysis of contemporary racisms and of the conceptual language required to analyze these racisms" (race, identity, and citizenship, p. 30)
June 28, 2007
for anyone interested in critical race theory...this is a must.
May 30, 2012
Christian Delacampagne's essay, "Racism and the West: From Praxis to Logos" is really engaging as it proposses to demonstrate a geneaology of racism in Western civilization. Pages 83-88.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews