White Men's Law: The Roots of Systemic Racism

by Peter Irons

A searing--and sobering--account of the legal and extra-legal means by which systemic white racism has kept Black Americans 'in their place' from slavery to police and vigilante killings of Black men and women, from 1619 to the present.

From the arrival of the first English settlers in America until now--a span of four centuries--a minority of white men have created, managed, and perpetuated their control of every major institution, public and private, in American society. And no group in America has suffered more from the harms imposed by white men's laws than Blacks, with punishment by law often replaced by extra-legal means. Over the centuries, thousands of victims have been murdered by lynching, white mobs, and appalling massacres.

In White Men's Law, the eminent scholar Peter Irons makes a powerful and persuasive case that Blacks have always been held back by systemic racism in all major institutions that can hold power over them. Based on a wide range of sources, from the painful words of former slaves to test scores that reveal how our education system has failed Black children, this searing and sobering account of legal and extra-legal violence against Blacks peels away the fictions and myths expressed by white racists. The centerpiece of Irons' account is a 1935 lynching in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The episode produced a photograph of a blonde white girl of about seven looking at the hanging, bullet-riddled body of Rubin Stacy, who was accused of assaulting a white woman. After analyzing this gruesome murder and the visual evidence left behind, Irons poses a foundational question: What historical forces preceded and followed this lynching to spark resistance to Jim Crow segregation, especially in schools that had crippled Black children with inferior education? The answers are rooted in the systemic racism--especially in the institutions of law and education--that Blacks, and growing numbers of white allies, are demanding be dismantled in tangible ways.

A thought-provoking look at systemic racism and the legal systems that built it, White Men's Law is an essential contribution to this painful but necessary debate.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

The author of several books on the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional litigation, Peter H. Irons is an American political activist, civil rights attorney, legal scholar, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.

Reviews

[Bryson Kloesel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Iron's most recent work on racial politics, White Men's Law: The Roots of Systemic Racism adeptly examines crucial points in United States History, taking a comprehensive critical legal lens to the rarely-explored nuances of eras from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era. Iron's disappointingly-refreshing self awareness squashes any suggestions from naysayers that critical race theory, or indeed, any form of critical theory, implies or suggests self hate.
Irons discussion of his own childhood was especially enlightening, particularly as I can relate to many of the aspects influencing the anecdotes he provides. I am a white male, I lived in the suburbs. Where we differ is our focus on built environments. Peter often fails to introduce the opportunity to discuss physical infrastructure- even if in the form of a brief mention.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I certainly don't want to look like I'm dismissing the issues related in this book by rating it so low. Indeed, I think Irons does make a convincing case, even if sometimes the stories highlighted are so graphic and disturbing you almost start to suspect he takes a form of pleasure in shocking the reader. Nevertheless, they do the job well enough. I just struggled to get much from this one, personally. I found it so boring, and Irons' style of writing so stale, despite the often upsetting content. Also, the man who narrated the Audible version that I listened to was all wrong. His voice was better suited for a comedy, and with his quite evidently white and borderline redneck drawl, it was kind of jarring to hear him use the N-word so excessively.

Now, the quality of audio narrator is not the book's fault, but then, to flip things around, nor is the content the fault of the narrator. Therefore I cannot fault him for reading that certain word as often as he does. But coupled with the fact he sounds like some shit-talking cowboy in a Tarantino film, it still felt a bit disrespectful. Like, I don't know, the guy wanted to make the most of using the word so much, with the defence that he was reading a book that was antiracist. I feel that way about a lot of these lefties. The apparent virtue of their position seems to give them licence to write or act as racist as they can, because they're depicting someone else.