White Racism

by Joe R. Feagin, Hernan Vera, Pinar Batur

This book incorporates a range of new material on racist events and incidents across the United States. It includes a few new concepts and some of the original concepts about individual and institutionalized racism in the United States.

Genres: Race, Sociology, History, Nonfiction

308 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Joe R. Feagin is a U.S. sociologist and social theorist who has conducted extensive research on racial and gender issues, especially in regard to the United States. He is currently the Ella C. McFadden and Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University. Feagin has taught at the University of Massachusetts (Boston), University of California (Riverside), University of Texas (Austin), University of Florida, and Texas A&M University.

Feagin has done much research work on race and ethnic relations and has served as the scholar in residence at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has written over 60 books, one of which (Ghetto Revolts) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is the 2006 recipient of a Harvard Alumni Association achievement award and was the 1999-2000 president of the American Sociological Association.

Reviews

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first chapter in this book for a graduate course (January 2012). I found Feagin's voice and writing style to be powerful. His discussion of white racism and how institutionalized it is in our society might be tough for some readers to grasp but it needs to be addressed in order for social changes to take place.

[Deborah]

I must read this book soon. The ideology of white racism is unrealistic given the true definition of racism. The concept is just as untrue as reverse racism. The true nature of racism involves the power and control of social, economic and government. The claim of reverse racism is to admit the practice of racism has, and has always been, and should remain in the power of a white society and against people of color, therefore, how can white racism exist?

[Days · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, I thought it was a very intelligent and well-done argument. I really liked the writing style, format, and examples used and although it could be a bit too textbook-y at times, I really enjoyed it. I would be interested in reading something just like this but an updated account, one that would take into consideration how social media has impacted racism, and also one that had more recent examples.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the authors was my professor at UConn, so I had to read it for class. Still, it's a book everyone should read.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as part of my Black History course at UofG. Blew apart my naiveté about racism in America.

[Christy Hammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my first course in Race and Ethnic Relations with Prof. Feagin at University of New Hampshire, back when his accent was thick enough to be difficult (at least for me) to understand. His research on the consequences of Blacks having more contact with Whites than visa versa, in general, are a powerful confirmation of what Gordon Allport in The Nature of Prejudice argued 50 years earlier: that "closeness begets closeness" and White Racism is always a worse problem when Whites don't have contact with POC on a regular basis. This is an excellent review of the media of White Racism with example after example of how Blacks were blamed by Whites for all kinds of crimes ("it was a Black guy who robbed/shot/raped/kidnapped!") as racist coverup of their own behavior or behavior of other Whites. Remarkably, I've come across several educated Whites who truly believe in the myth of "color-blindedness" on Goodreads, and Feagin argues this is really "blindness" and denial of White racism, and shares survey data that many US Whites believe that racism ended with the Civil War. Really.