Whiteness History Month Project: Books

"This groundbreaking book incorporates data and interviews to show how the everyday thinking of ordinary people contributes to the perpetuation of systemic racialized inequality."

This is an electronic book.

"Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status, much like their grandparents before them, who lived under an explicit system of control."

This is an electronic book; print copies are available through the PCC Library.

"Above and beyond personal prejudice, whiteness is a structured advantage that produces unfair gains and unearned rewards for whites while imposing impediments to asset accumulation, employment, housing, and health care for minorities."

This is an electronic book; print copies are available through the PCC Library.

"Documents how beneath our contemporary conversation about race lies a full-blown arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories that whites use to account for--and ultimately justify-- racial inequalities. This provocative book explodes the belief that America is now a color-blind society."

"Explores how white privilege operates as an unseen, invisible, and unquestioned norm in society today.

"Delves into the complex interplay between race, power, and privilege in both organizations and private life. It offers an unflinching look at how ignorance can perpetuate privilege, and offers practical and thoughtful insights into how people of all races can work to break this cycle."

This is an electronic book; print copies are available through the PCC Library.

"Invites readers to consider what it means to be white, describes and critiques strategies used to avoid race issues, and identifies the detrimental effect of avoiding race on cross-race collaborations. The author illustrates how racial discomfort leads white people toward poor relationships with people of color."

What forces transformed Africans into African Americans? In what way did their presence shape their attitudes - and fortunes - of White America? These are among the questions that Lerone Bennett Jr addresses in this book. The first section, "Foundations", encompasses Black slaves and White indentured servants, the Black founding fathers and the relationship between African-Americans and Indians. The second section traces the growth of Black labor and Black capital and their convergence into a separate economy.
Available in print through the PCC Library.

How the Irish Became White explodes a number of myths surrounding race in our society. Focusing on how the Irish were assimilated as "whites" in America, Noel Ignatiev uncovers the roots of conflict between Irish Americans and African Americans and draws a powerful connection between Irish "success" in nineteenth-century American society and their embrace of white supremacy.
Available in print through the PCC Library.

Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger’s widely acclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States.
Available in print through the PCC Library.