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White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001
Winner, T. R. Fehrenbach Award, Texas Historical Commission, 2007
From the nineteenth century until today, the power brokers of Dallas have always portrayed their city as a progressive, pro-business, racially harmonious community that has avoided the racial, ethnic, and class strife that roiled other Southern cities. But does this image of Dallas match the historical reality? In this book, Michael Phillips delves deeply into Dallas's racial and religious past and uncovers a complicated history of resistance, collaboration, and assimilation between the city's African American, Mexican American, and Jewish communities and its white power elite.
Exploring more than 150 years of Dallas history, Phillips reveals how white business leaders created both a white racial identity and a Southwestern regional identity that excluded African Americans from power and required Mexican Americans and Jews to adopt Anglo-Saxon norms to achieve what limited positions of power they held. He also demonstrates how the concept of whiteness kept these groups from allying with each other, and with working- and middle-class whites, to build a greater power base and end elite control of the city. Comparing the Dallas racial experience with that of Houston and Atlanta, Phillips identifies how Dallas fits into regional patterns of race relations and illuminates the unique forces that have kept its racial history hidden until the publication of this book.
From the nineteenth century until today, the power brokers of Dallas have always portrayed their city as a progressive, pro-business, racially harmonious community that has avoided the racial, ethnic, and class strife that roiled other Southern cities. But does this image of Dallas match the historical reality? In this book, Michael Phillips delves deeply into Dallas's racial and religious past and uncovers a complicated history of resistance, collaboration, and assimilation between the city's African American, Mexican American, and Jewish communities and its white power elite.
Exploring more than 150 years of Dallas history, Phillips reveals how white business leaders created both a white racial identity and a Southwestern regional identity that excluded African Americans from power and required Mexican Americans and Jews to adopt Anglo-Saxon norms to achieve what limited positions of power they held. He also demonstrates how the concept of whiteness kept these groups from allying with each other, and with working- and middle-class whites, to build a greater power base and end elite control of the city. Comparing the Dallas racial experience with that of Houston and Atlanta, Phillips identifies how Dallas fits into regional patterns of race relations and illuminates the unique forces that have kept its racial history hidden until the publication of this book.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Michael Phillips
3 books3 followersLibrarian Note: there is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 2, 2007
I met this guy. The author, that is. And after just listening to him record a podcast I basically knew I would find his book completely and satisfyingly interesting. I was not dissapointed.
It's textbook-y, for sure. Dense at times, but if you have any interest in Dallas politics, social movements and history I am wont to know any other book to check out from your local library.
Most interesting is discovering and realizing the distinct attitude and circumstance that Dallas fell under whether it was slavery, Jim Crow and segregation. Similiarly, how those attitudes shaped a city that is gigantic and important and yet it has no identity. Hell, the one thing that binds and identifies the city (the Dallas Cowboys) is easily disposed of by the yokels. Casual fans, at best.
Of course, it's a far cry from football to attitudes towards Jews, Hispanics and blacks, but it's this attitude, a I-could-care-less demeanor, that really defines this city and it kind of sucks.
Holla.
It's textbook-y, for sure. Dense at times, but if you have any interest in Dallas politics, social movements and history I am wont to know any other book to check out from your local library.
Most interesting is discovering and realizing the distinct attitude and circumstance that Dallas fell under whether it was slavery, Jim Crow and segregation. Similiarly, how those attitudes shaped a city that is gigantic and important and yet it has no identity. Hell, the one thing that binds and identifies the city (the Dallas Cowboys) is easily disposed of by the yokels. Casual fans, at best.
Of course, it's a far cry from football to attitudes towards Jews, Hispanics and blacks, but it's this attitude, a I-could-care-less demeanor, that really defines this city and it kind of sucks.
Holla.
June 27, 2024
Realistically this is closer to 4 than 5 stars for me, but I thought I’d give it the extra one to try and cancel out some of the more childish ratings of others who complain that a book with race in the title is “too concerned with race.”
This book makes up for all the deficiencies of Schutze’s The Accommodation, which is too narrow & journalistic to deliver an overall history & critique of the politics of race in Dallas history. I would argue that occasionally, Phillips’ apparent need to deliver powerful writing results in a slight disconnect between the researched materials and the conclusions offered, but the discerning reader should be able to identify those moments and grasp the important details regardless. His polemical attitude towards other texts is often a source of this disconnect.
Still, this is the best book on this subject I have read and I would recommend it to anyone who lives in Dallas or to anyone who wants to understand how race has functioned socially/politically in Texas’ metropolises. Hell, I grew up in an Irish American catholic family in late 20th century/early 21st century Dallas and even then I experienced some of the intrawhite xenophobia discussed here, considering I was aggressively asked more than once by Protestant peers “why do you go to the Mexican church?”
This book makes up for all the deficiencies of Schutze’s The Accommodation, which is too narrow & journalistic to deliver an overall history & critique of the politics of race in Dallas history. I would argue that occasionally, Phillips’ apparent need to deliver powerful writing results in a slight disconnect between the researched materials and the conclusions offered, but the discerning reader should be able to identify those moments and grasp the important details regardless. His polemical attitude towards other texts is often a source of this disconnect.
Still, this is the best book on this subject I have read and I would recommend it to anyone who lives in Dallas or to anyone who wants to understand how race has functioned socially/politically in Texas’ metropolises. Hell, I grew up in an Irish American catholic family in late 20th century/early 21st century Dallas and even then I experienced some of the intrawhite xenophobia discussed here, considering I was aggressively asked more than once by Protestant peers “why do you go to the Mexican church?”
March 31, 2008
I really enjoyed this book--it's basically a racial history of Dallas. A bit heavy-handed in parts, but does offer a fresh perspective on local history.
March 14, 2021
Michael Phillips deserves a great deal of credit for his research of documents related to race, and many other tangential or unrelated, issues, and the city of Dallas (and sometimes, for often unexplained reasons, other places).
That’s the best thing I can say about this book.
While many sections are interesting, new, enlightening, there is no real story here, no story laid out in any kind of logical fashion. He jumps from one decade to another and then back again, lays out a good case based on sources at times, then draws conclusions unsupported by the research he provides. His conclusions about African-American and Latina/o communities are often down-right insulting as well as being scatter-shot.
As someone who moved to Dallas to work in community organizing in the late 1970s, I find it hard to believe how much he omitted pertaining to the late 70s and early 80s. Instead he devotes a lot of page space inexplicably attacking other publications with which he finds fault.
This is an important story, but unfortunately this book doesn’t really tell it.
That’s the best thing I can say about this book.
While many sections are interesting, new, enlightening, there is no real story here, no story laid out in any kind of logical fashion. He jumps from one decade to another and then back again, lays out a good case based on sources at times, then draws conclusions unsupported by the research he provides. His conclusions about African-American and Latina/o communities are often down-right insulting as well as being scatter-shot.
As someone who moved to Dallas to work in community organizing in the late 1970s, I find it hard to believe how much he omitted pertaining to the late 70s and early 80s. Instead he devotes a lot of page space inexplicably attacking other publications with which he finds fault.
This is an important story, but unfortunately this book doesn’t really tell it.
November 27, 2021
The author's knowledge of Dallas' history, specifically as it relates to race, is extensive. This is a collection of interesting anecdotes, news pieces, diary entries, letters, and political changes which illustrate racial struggle in Dallas for 160 years. Phillips is clearly an intelligent, socially-conscious, first-rate historian. From Phillips' description at the beginning of the book, it seems the history of Dallas has been largely ignored, and this book contributes immensely to fill this knowledge gap. However, I found this book difficult to read because of a lack of organization. Although the text loosely follows the progression of time, I wish the chapters were better distinguished from one another, and perhaps subheadings were added to the chapters to make the book more readable.
April 23, 2020
This book provides a history of Dallas through the lens of “whiteness studies”, an area of social science with which I wasn’t previously familiar. I found it often illuminating and impressively sourced if at times a bit over the top in its rhetoric. It also strays from focusing on Dallas occasionally, providing passages on Houston and the rest of Texas that begin to feel more unnecessary than useful.
October 12, 2022
Had to read for college but thankfully didn't have to buy the book though that means I can't have the satisfaction of tossing it in the trash. Disliked it not because it was required reading, but because the book as an unhealthy obsession with race which makes one think that, for all of the author's outrage at racism, he might be just as racist as anyone he discusses in this book. The only upside was I learned several interesting facts about Dallas.
January 31, 2019
A lucid and enjoyable narration of Dallas history, told through through class and racial struggles.
And, while I wouldn’t exactly say it’s a microcosm of American history, it’s a important part of American history that helps you understand the whole much better.
And, while I wouldn’t exactly say it’s a microcosm of American history, it’s a important part of American history that helps you understand the whole much better.
December 18, 2019
An excellent deep dive into how Dallas's "too busy to be racist" schick is a facade. A lot of interesting facts about the development of certain neighborhoods as well as the KKK's racial terrorism in the area.
February 3, 2021
Great book. Easy reading. Informative and very factual. I was born in Dallas and have always wanted more historical data.
February 8, 2021
A DETAILED but enlightening history of Dallas and societal influences based not just on race but on power and caste. Also insight into Texas and USA history and social movements.
September 25, 2024
Amazing. This book is thoroughly researched. If you go to high school in Texas this should be mandatory reading. It should be mandatory reading for all Americans.
February 8, 2026
Phillips successfully articules the history of the unspoken understandings that float in the air around Dallas.
December 19, 2007
More of a text book than an entertaining book, it is packed with information and numbers that have rarely been compiled about Dallas. It's the kind of book to make the old power structure (and their descendants) squirm.
Sometimes the truth just hurts. But there is truth. It is real. When acknowledged, it can make for a better future.
Sometimes the truth just hurts. But there is truth. It is real. When acknowledged, it can make for a better future.
November 30, 2015
Would be of uppermost interest to people from or familiar with Dallas, but honestly a great look at how systemic racism perpetuates across time in one American city.
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April 10, 2017Wow. If you think you know Dallas history, this book will either upend your knowledge or at the very least modify it greatly. Excellent look into not just race politics and history in Dallas but also religion. While it is certainly not a light, beach read kind of book, it is an important examination of dynamics in our city.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews