| RATING: | 60% |
| FORMAT: | Book |
A book showing White supremacism at the core of Western cultural values, but which is flawed from the outset by its belief that there is no such thing as objective truth. This explains why sociology is not really a science (merely a negative or positive self-fulfilling prophecy) since it denies the very reality that would make it truly scientific. Like the belief in the fallacy of the "unconscious racist", such a view allows Whites to do nothing about political problems they cause since they are said either to not exist or be outside conscious awareness - the same thing in practice.
Underlying this solipsistic desire to deny reality - while simultaneously telling us the so-called truth - lies White guilt & shame. Guilt that a culture should be based on a White supremacist lie: Shame that Blacks have always known it. The fundamental problem for Whites is how to face the world with integrity given that they can never know who they are in a supremacist culture. It is, after all, difficult to know how much of one’s success is attributable to the unearned psychological and material benefits of phenotypism or to one’s actual skills, talents and abilities. This essential fact is the source of the paranoia, schizophrenia & narcissism implicit in this books' content.
However, the author does largely understand Western culture consistently: The US expression "Free, White and Twenty-One" is impossible to imagine as "Free, Black, and Twenty-One" without inviting ridicule. She also understands that to speak-out against such cultural indoctrination is to risk White ostracism as well as the fact that White supremacism is a form of terrorism that will never be included on a list of terrorist activities compiled by Whites.
Like a serial-killer movie, this book explores the White supremacist imagination to reveal the sense of tragedy, loss & personal failure it inevitably finds there. Along with the anger, resentment & envy aimed at those deemed inferior (although not so inferior that they are not deemed a very great threat to Whites). The author realizes Whites do not have to be overtly racist to benefit from racism. They can simply deny the existence of their racial welfare and, thus, can covertly continue to accept and enjoy these benefits - at others' expense. Such behavior is common in White culture: The anti-Semitism of Christians to enforce a Christian world; the implicit threat of rape to keep women in their domesticated place; gay bashing to frighten homosexuals. All are used to say who belongs and who does not - to bolster the fragile egos of supremacists.
The author's basic premiss is that overt White supremacists are the tip of the iceberg of White culture's view of Black people, Jews, women, gays, etc. That such hate speech is protected by the concept of free speech proves tacit White support for such speech, along with the negative psychological and physical affects of Whites who act as though they are genetically superior to the feared groups. However, she lacks the imagination to see a world in which Whites see themselves as people rather than merely as White people. That the costs to Whites of White supremacism always outweigh the long-term benefits has always been known - but rarely faced - by Whites, since the materialistic culture created by racial slavery and White imperialism was too good a chance to miss for lazy White opportunists. Moreover, no matter how anti-racist such people claim to be, they rarely renounce the benefits of such racism in their personal lives.
Ultimately, this is dry-as-dust academicism with an underlying undergraduate sense of saying something important - something that is really rather obvious. Not a book for Black people since it states what they already know from experience without needing a social scientist to tell it to them. Without offering a reason for Whites to kill the goose (White supremacism) laying them golden eggs, it is hard to see such a political institution coming to an end and equally hard, therefore, to see the real point of this book. For a culture set on being top dog, it is a tall order for Whites to change and see themselves as just as good as everyone else - old habits die-hard, after all. Like all Whites enmeshed in the White supremacist discourse they criticize, they find it hard to imagine being White without also being racist - without ever pausing to wonder why Blacks find it easy to be Black without being discriminatory.
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