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Analyzing the career of Dillon S. Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority during WWII and Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1950-53, Richard Drinnon shows that the pattern for the Japanese internment was set a century earlier by the removal, confinement, and scattering of Native Americans. ... Read more

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How does everyday talk contribute to the spread and acceptance of ethnic prejudice?

@3Communicating Racism is a revealing interdisciplinary study of ethnic prejudices and the ways in which they are diffused through interpersonal communication and intergroup interaction.

@3In this clearly written and comprehensive study, van Dijk establishes a crucial link between the cognitive, social and communicative dimensions of racism. He examines:

@3} The social psychology of ethnic attitudes

@3} The cognitive psychology of ethnic prejudice

@3} The social context of prejudice

@3} The interpersonal communication of racism

@3By analysing informal discourse and the reproduction of racism within the white majority, the author offers us a new understanding of many deep-rooted and poorly-understood patterns of prejudice.

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about the book
its great and is very educative.makes one really understand the word racism and prejudice ... Read more

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This book examines the history of Africans and African-Americans in Mainland China and Taiwan, the Chinese and African nation's relationship and its political repercussions for Mainland China and Taiwan, and the Chinese/African-American social relationships in the United States. Although the Chinas are thought by western societies to advocate racial equality in their respective countries, this book uncovers the everyday racial attitudes of the Chinese people and governments toward Africans and African-Americans. In this book, crucial events in the Chinas such as the forced opening of China by the west and Chinese philosophical views throughout her history, are analyzed in how they have been instrumental in shaping racial attitudes that have led to racial polarization, racial violence and race riots against Africans and African-Americans in the Chinas. ... Read more

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Excellent study of a little known fact about China
The Chinese have moved deep into Africa to exploit the rich mineral wealth of the African continent. Chinese arrogance and racism towards people of African descent has been quietly overlooked in this gold rush for raw materials. ... Read more

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Racism Learned at an Early Age Through Racial ScriptingThis book is about the process by which white children acquire racist attitudes. More specifically, it is a book about what white parents, relatives, media, schools and religious organizations teach children about African Americans. The main thesis of the book is racist attitudes are taught (and learned) at an early age through a process known as "racial scripting". A Racial script is a series of programmed stereotypes and myths about a racial or ethnic group other than one's own. After a racial script is learned, it can then be activated upon the appearance of race-specific stimuli in the environment. Racial scripts guide the mind's eye in deciding what to perceive and what not to perceive. They work backstage, but may be activated and "pop into consciousness." Scripts determine "see this and not that", that is, scripts determine not only what we will notice, but what we do not notice. An activated racial script dominates awareness.The scripts may be positive and influence accurate perceptions; they may be negative and pre-dispose one to false perceptions; they may be neutral and dispose one to unbiased perceptions or they may be mixed and influence ambivalent perceptions. A racial script results from an early identification process by the immature child in which he/she adopts the parents' (the primary group) behaviors (scripts) and align his/her behavior with the realities of the home situation. The family is the basic institution through which children learn the fundamentals of life and parents are the primary agents of socialization. They define the child's world. They teach the "three R's (reading, writing and arithmetic). But, in addition to teaching children "the three R's" there is also another instructional system taught to young children called the fourth "R" or RACISM. ... Read more

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Redundant....
I am an African American who had to read this book for an African American psychology class. When I first started reading it, I was very turned off by it. The text initially engaged in a lot of "Why did Whites do this," and "Why did Whites do that" type of rambling. After a while, it got pretty redundant. It could easily put someone off. After reading for a little longer the book got more interesting, especially at the end. It talks a great deal about how Whites develop prejudice, what types of prejudices there are, and how these prejudices can be changed for better or worse. Period. However, you will find that the author basically repeats these concepts in every chapter over and over again, along with the same stories to reiterate his point over and over. The book cut have been easily cut in half. In addition, I found that the author sounded quite bitter and angry in the beginning of the book. It would be more helpful to me, if an author is trying to educate someone, they should do it from a neutral standpoint, otherwise it will turn people off, even someone who can identify with being African American and who has some of the same frustration. ... Read more

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Racial and ethnic inclusiveness has grown to be more important in the United States as its society has become increasingly diverse. Racism, Sexism, and the Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America, Third Edition examines how people of color fit into the fabric of America and how the media tell them and others how they fit. Authors Clint C. Wilson, Félix Gutiérrez, and Lena M. Chao perceive the rise of class communication as a result of the convergence of new media technologies and continued demographic segmentation of audiences as people of color grow as targets of and markets for the media.

The Third Edition of Racism, Sexism, and the Media includes updated content on topics covered in the previous editions, such as film, television, radio, print media, advertising, and public relations. This edition incorporates new material on women of color, including an integrated assessment of their media experiences. The authors have arranged the chapters to facilitate a logical approach to the subject, providing readers more access to understanding how the media represent minorities.

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"Liberalism seems poised for a renewal, but its chances for creating a visionary program for the next century are jeopardized by racial contradictions and confusions that continue to appear in its social policy. Instead of the colorblind society once promised by the left, we inhabit a country seething with racial resentments. With uncompromising clarity, Jim Sleeper discusses what liberals need to do to return their political movement to the vital center. Along the way, Sleeper punctures liberal pieties to reveal politicians and journalists still stymied by race, impotent in the face of conservative racism, and paralyzed by a guilt that neither advances social justice nor helps fashion a common American identity. Jim Sleeper challenges us to transcend race, to reject the foolish policies and attitudes that have only reinforced racial divisions, and to weave a social fabric sturdy enough to sustain the values upon which this country was founded. Now available in paperback with a substantial new introduction, Liberal Racism: How Fixating on Race Subverts the American Dream is sure to reawaken and re-energize the debate surrounding race and ethnicity."Amazon.com Review
A kind of sequel to Jim Sleeper's earlier The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York, this is a tough-minded, provocative indictment of the failure of liberalism in the post-Civil Rights era. As Sleeper sees it, liberals once held the moral high ground because they "fought nobly to help this country rise above color." Now, however, liberals have become blinded by race and have abandoned the fight to create what Sleeper calls the "transracial belonging and civic faith for which Americans of all colors so obviously yearn." Much of what Sleeper has to say here flies in the face of politically correct received wisdom about race, but as an effort to remind Americans that all of us are fundamentally responsible for our fates, this is a much-needed corrective to race-based thinking that has proven unproductive. ... Read more

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Interesting issues about race and society
Liberals are supposed to believe in an inclusive society, where we take advantage of the contributions from everyone in it.And where each person has equal rights.

That surely does not mean lowering standards.A doctor still has to meet standards to practice.A university student still has to pass exams to qualify for a profession.

But it does mean letting people into that university independent of their race, religion, gender, sexual preference, creed, and so on.Maybe age discrimination would be an interesting question, but discrimination in favor of or against people of a specific skin color?That's supposed to be illiberal.

A century ago, the bar was set higher for non-whites than for whites.That was racist and counterproductive.Jim Sleeper asks if we are setting the bar so low for non-whites today that we are denying non-whites the satisfaction of equal accomplishment and opportunity. Given my Asian background, I find this question interesting.

Sleeper asks if, not out of malice but out of folly, many liberals have overemphasized black identity and thus behaved in a racist manner themselves.The author explains that conservatives still have some of the same exclusionary problems they've always had.This is not an apology for conservatism.It is a plea for genuine liberalism.

As Sleeper explains, blacks have much to profit from a truly color-blind society.

The first main topic Sleeper deals with is individual responsibility, as seen in court cases.In the past, blacks simply did not get treated justly in white courts.But there is still a threat of some of the same problems if we keep looking carefully at skin color in court cases.What is legal for whites must be legal for blacks and what is illegal for whites has to be illegal for blacks.The author gives some examples in which many liberals have strayed from this idea.

The next issue is voting rights, where the threat by those who simply will not be color-blind is racial districting.After that, Sleeper discusses the media.He tells us that "good journalists are not crusaders or missionaries.Their job is to uncover the truth, even when it hurts."He contrasts the coverage of a 35,000 person Promise Keepers rally to the 400,000 person Farrakhan "March."Both of these events could have been treated sympathetically, fairly, or critically.But they were treated very differently.

I wanted to see a more thorough discussion of affirmative action.I think there ought to be a clear and beneficial policy here.Namely this: everyone needs to meet the same standards to serve the community, independent of race.But those who are having trouble meeting standards should get some extra support.That is help so that they can meet standards, not a lowering of standards that renders those with credentials suspect.Giving some students extra help in high school makes sense.Kids are required to go to high school by law.Letting people into college who do not actually qualify seems counterproductive to me.But this is not a major criticism of the book.The author has shown that some of us have been lowering standards on the basis of race, and that's the main issue here.

I think Sleeper has made some valuable points.Liberal racism may be more patronizing than malicious, but it is part of a problem in our society.We'll all be more prosperous and happier if we can have a colorblind attitude and reduce racial divisions rather than enhance them.

In the end lacking...
Sleeper's criticism of the corrosiveness of (generally) well-intended white liberal political interventions is astute, but his proposed solution - the (re-)adoption by all Americans of New England puritan values (capitalist vigour + personal thrift + rigid church-based moral codes), while sounding 'tough talking', is simply naive.

He assumes that vigorous free-market consumer capitalism is compatible with such traditional values, whereas the reality world-wide would seem to be the opposite: Traditional and local values get lost in a blur of glossy consumer indulgence and hedonism.What does he propose replacing this money-making, money-spending search for pleasure with?Thrift as a good in itself?But if we don't spend then the system comes crashing down, especially in post-industrial, service-oriented economies.

Moreover high personal moral values of the sort he praises in the last section of the book have always been compatible with beliefs that we now see are terribly immoral - slavery, for instance.The men who wrote that it was self-evidently true that all men are created equal owned slaves.If it seems banal to restate that, it's a reminder that one can't just step into the values of a time gone by, cherry-pick the ones onelikes, and then try to browbeat the poorer members of society into adopting them:they come with historical baggage.Hence they may be impulsively resented and deserve to be seriously interrogated.

Mr Sleeper believes that the 'true' American values on which the communal spirit should be rebuilt are New England Puritan ones, but weren't the values of the Southern slave-owners equally 'truly American'?To step outside the reality of history is to step away from reality in all its cluttered complexity, and engagement with reality is what is so often lacking in the discussion of race issues.

In the end Sleeper's proposal that if everyone knuckled down - especially the poor - and conformed to a singlevision of the life well-lived then society would be more harmonious, is little more than a conservative platitude.It has the added bonus of letting white people and those in power off the hook as regards racism and racial disadvantage, hence its appeal to comfortably-off right-wingers, who feel themselves terribly put upon by the notion that their skin-colour still gives them privileges in 21st Century America.

An honest and ebjective portrayal of racial issues.
Sleeper's book Liberal Racism portrays his ideas about modern american racial tensions in a brutally honest and clear manner. The book deals with liberal's failings in their ideas about race, but Sleeper is careful not to make it an attack of the left, nor a support of the right, but rather an encouragement and constructive criticsm of liberal ideologies about race. In doing this he mantains objectivity by brilliantly refusing to take sides with any political entity, supporting equally the ideas of people as disparrate as race radicals of the 1960's to Newt Gingrich. In addition to Sleeper's careful structuring of his stance, he argues the book with sharp and clear logic, his language and structure flowing beautifully not only within chapters and subjects, but throughout the whole text, as he categorically examines ideas relating to crime, voting, the media, and culture, among others. This book is a valuable text in today's modern racial context because it is not only enlightening, it offers a fresh and concise viewpoint on an often less than clear topic.

miles to go before he sleeps
Jim Sleeper's Liberal Racism shares the strengths and weaknesses of several similar books by apostates from the Left (Norman Podhoretz's
several memoirs, In Defense of Elitism by the late William Henry, How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy by Harry
Stein and Radical Son by David Horowitz all come to mind): he's very good when analyzing the precise problems with modern Liberalism
that drove him to question its orthodoxy, but he falters when it comes time to follow his doubts to their necessary conclusions.One can
sympathize with, or at least understand, all these men's shared reluctance to fully embrace the conservative logic of their own writings, and
their residual need to demonstrate to their old comrades on the Left that drifting Right hasn't made them uncaring, but this hesitancy does
diminish each of their books.

In Mr. Sleeper's case, he starts from a very basic and astute observation :

[L]iberal racism patronizes nonwhites by expecting (and getting) less of them than they are fully capable of achieving.Intending to turn
the tables on racist double standards that set the bar much higher for nonwhites, liberal racism ends up perpetuating double standards by
setting the bar so much lower for its intended beneficiaries that it denies them the satisfactions of equal accomplishment and opportunity.

He proceeds to deliver chapter and verse indicating that this is the case : from an excellent demonstration of how the 1964 Voting Rights Act
was perverted into a way of guaranteeing a few seats for black Congressmen; to an explanation of how "root causes" excuses for criminal
behavior and opposition to vigorous law enforcement had helped to make places like New York City more dangerous for blacks, until Rudy
Guliani came along and ignored both; to a devastating indictment of the NY Times and its racial politics, both as it plays out in politically
correct company policy and as it functions to distort the paper's news coverage; to a depiction of how Alex Haley's novel Roots helped
create a false African consciousness in black America, which has gradually created an unhealthy distance between blacks and the Western
values they need to succeed in this culture.

In all of these instances, liberals (black and white) have sought to explain away black underachievment as a phenomenon whose sole cause
is white racism and whose only solution lies in government action (i.e., white benevolence).Even setting aside the question of whether
racism is really this powerful and is still pervasive, framing the situation in this way can only harm blacks : by removing incentives for
self-improvement, since government aid is promised for every ill; by lowering self-esteem, since all progress will be a result of government
(Liberal) intercession; and, by imposing artificial limits, such as the Congressional scheme, which packed gerrymandered districts with black
voters, thereby gaining black Representatives while diminishing black power in all the surrounding districts.

So far, Mr. Sleeper is right on the money.But when he moves beyond the critique he gets himself in trouble, because his stated intent is an
impossibility :

This book's premise is that precisely because the United States is becoming racially, ethnically, and religiously more complex than
institutional color-coding can comprehend, liberals should be working overtime to nurture some shared American principles and bonds
that strengthen national belonging and nourish democratic habits.

He seems oblivious to the fact that the project he's set himself is to make Liberalism into Conservatism.For Liberalism's very raison d'être
is to remove societal inequalities via government action, to force egalitarianism down our throats at the cost of our freedom.You see, the
dirty little secret that Mr. Sleeper does not allow himself to face is that you could just replace "black" with "poor" in the entire prior analysis
and leave most of the rest of his argument unchanged.It is a mere sad circumstance of American history and our unfortunate legacy of
slavery and Jim Crow that so many blacks are part of the underclass.Liberalism may focus on them in particular, but it patronizes, and
thereby debilitates, all of the poor. Liberalism always resorts to government action, always excuses social pathologies as not the fault of the
perpetrators, always blames oppression for inequalities, always asks (and expects) little of those it claims to serve, while promising much.
Small wonder that the epoch of Liberalism (1929-1980, in other words, from the Depression to the election of Ronald Reagan) turned the
poor into dependents of the Welfare State.

That said though, Mr. Sleeper is right when he suggests that the appropriate alternative to this kind of ineffectual patronizing and
counterproductive governmental meddling is a restoration of civil society, of non-governmental social organizations, of family, church,
community, etc., structured around common traditional values and standards of behavior.Central to all of this is a revival of the ethos of
personal responsibility, combined with a sense of communal obligation.We, all of us, need to stop depending on government and seeking
excuses for our own shortcomings.We need to learn once again how to rely on ourselves and how to provide for those around us.

Meanwhile, Liberalism, as Mr. Sleeper says, deserves great credit for its role in the fight against institutionalized racism in America (forty
years ago) , but as he quotes Thurgood Marshall as saying :

The law can open doors and knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges.

For America to fulfill its own purpose, it was vital to include all our citizens in a society of opportunity, to allow them the freedom to make
what they can out of their own lives without any interference due to race, creed, or color.We can, and must, make the law colorblind, so
that each of us is judged only by what Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the content of our character", but as Justice Marshall suggested,
government isn't capable of removing the prejudices in each of our hearts.To achieve that entirely commendable goal we will require a
healthy civil society, one that builds character, one in which we are individually free but mutually dependent and where government is only
a last resort.Unfortunately for Mr. Sleeper, that is all antithetical to Liberalism.

...

Important
The author says his conversion to objective thought, from self-congratulatory liberal bias, occurred when he heard a black representative tell an audience, "Liberals can be the biggest racists of all." It took years for the author's thoughts to evolve to the point of realizing the truth of that statement. He says he wrote the book to "save others some time." An effective, truthful book. ... Read more

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Brutal facts for brutal acts
Tim Wise provides a searing update on the new racism that has entered the sociopolitical mindscape in the United States. He provides thought-provoking facts, both current and historical, that demonstrate a behind-the-scenes unconscious agenda played out in society because of unacknowledged white privilege. Not even Obama escapes the pressures of the new racism. I am sending copies to my family members and friends.

Great
Shipment was fast. The book came in really good condition. Hope to use this seller in the future.

Is Race a pure Strategy for de-railing the Obama political train?
Tim Wise, along with Robert Jensen (at the University of Texas, Austin) is among only a handful of vocal, activist, white, anti-racists still remaining in America. In this irreverent book that appears to have gone to press just shortly after Obama's election, Wise proves that he is not afraid to call a "spade a spade" even in race-sensitive America, and even when the subject is "our first Black President."

Although his main point in this penetrating series of "essay like commentaries" seem to have been that of raising the level of consciousness about the subtle differences between white denial in Racism 1.0 and the newer even more pernicious denial in Racism version 2.0, Wise does one other thing that I think is even more important than the message about the continuing evolution of white denial. He also goes about removing all pretense (and the remaining clothes) from our race-allergic" biracial Emperor, on the issue of race.

By taking no quarter with Obama's clearly established "race-cowardice" stance, in the face of the most devastating social and political meltdown in the black community ever, Wise establishes himself as the voice to be heard in America's conversation on race. One that is increasingly being commandeered and dominated by the likes of Sarah Palin's "Tea Party," and the shock Jocks from the racist radical right like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. As always, Wise has learned that when talking about race, one must come armed with all the facts, and here he is a virtual encyclopedia of facts about the alarming increase in the chasm in the racial divide -- mostly as a result of Racism 2.0.

But on the other topic of this book, Obama's skittishness on race, I agree with the author entirely: that Obama's disgraceful "pandering" to the white supremacist vote, harks back to the old days of the Jim Crow South, where right up through the election night parties, blacks were "wined and dined," but on the morning after the election, they were the only ones "missing in action" when it came to handing out the political goodies. And oddly, with the Shirley Sherrod flap, and Obama's gratuitous announcement that "there is no black agenda," this pattern has gotten worse rather than better since this book went to press.

To their credit, the "Tea Party," the shock jocks from the right, and Fox News pundits, all smell blood in Obama's skittishness on the issue of race. As a result, they are able to fashion, based on this vulnerability, a "pure strategy" for ruining Obama's chances of a continued veto-proof Congress, and ultimately for derailing any attempt by him of trying to win a second term. Sadly, as Wise so carefully points out, Obama and his Chicago handlers are falling for thisracist "okie-doke," and right into the radical right's trap: When the idiots of the far right say "boo," like a cage of monkeys in the zoo, the Obama administration, first pees, and then jumps all over themselves.Thus as anyone can plainly see (from the Shirley Sherrod "attack and then retreat;" the withdrawal of his own hand-picked appointee for the EPA, the inept "Beer Summit," Robert Gibbs' mindless declaration about the "professional left," and declaring that "there is no black agenda") there is clearly an established pattern by the Obama administration of showing Blacks and other progressives (the ones who went to the well for him to get him elected) a kind of gratuitous disrespect for their concerns.

This pattern of "flipping the bird at those who elected him," is one that we have not seen since the "unctuous politicians" of the racist Jim Crow South: By "pandering," "tacking," and "triangulating" to the white supremacist vote, Obama and his handlers may think they are being politically clever, but as this book demonstrates, doing so has the very high costs of making our new biracial President seem just plain weak and timid, and weak and timid, for anyone who remembers Jimmy Carter, just happen to be the very two qualities from which a politician never recovers. A solid Five Stars.

impact of texts on black and white relations
this book details some of the problems existing in the relations of whites and blacks in America.Much as individuals may wish to think or accept that there has been improvement in these relations, the text pinpoints the problems still present.it is a worthwhile read and an eye opener....

Between Barrack and a Hard Place...
An excellent read about racism which still exists in the US today. Tim Wise has throughly researched this topic and has presented it in a way that most everyone can undersatnd the topic and its ramifications to society. We are living it through all people the President of the United States, Barrack Obama. ... Read more

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Univ. of Guelph, Canada. Analyzes the concept of race and the ideas of race in 19th and 20th century psychology. Explores the link between racial studies and social attitudes in our time and provides a comprehensive examination of that link throughout history. Also discusses the prominence and persistence of American research on racial differences in intelligence. ... Read more

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book
Unfortunately I was not able to look inside the book before I ordered it. It is not written in a format that can be used as a text book. ... Read more

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W. E. B. DuBois wrote in 1903 that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line--the relation of the darker to the lighter races in the various areas of the world in which they interact." As the century draws to its close, this remains true; the last few years have witnessed a growth in academic interest in racism and an increasing general awareness of various kinds of racial conflict and violence in areas around the globe. This Oxford Reader provides a critical overview of the historical development and contemporary forms of racist ideas and institutions. It brings together material from different theoretical perspectives in an attempt to make sense of the ways in which racism has exerted such a powerful influence on the history of humanity. ... Read more

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This provocative and challenging work examines the way in which much third-world aid, far from contributing to the prosperity of recipient countries, helps to sustain global relations of domination and subordination. Based on the author's personal experiences as a volunteer in Nicaragua and in-depth interviews with development and aid workers, this study focuses on the role that race plays in development and the impact of the unacknowledged and often unconscious assumptions of Western whites. By scrutinizing the motivations of those with good intentions, the role and influence of whiteness in the developing world is brought to the forefront. ... Read more

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A Book to Change the Way You Think
In her book Goudge gives specific examples of how ingrained racism has become in the everyday life of First World citizens.Drawing from her own experiences in Nicaragua during and after the Contra War, Goudge exposes a side of international aid that most dont know exists.Goudge urges her readers to recognize the power imbalance and take responsibility for all it entails, This includes giving the third world a voice in their own development and the willingness to have an open, honest discussion with the Third World without demanding Western standards or practices.
After reading this book and having the priviledge of discussing it with classmates and even Goudge herself, I can honestly say that I will never read a newspaper, watch the evening news, listen to a lecture, or think of foreign aid in the same way again. ... Read more

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In this provocative book, a black lesbian feminist looks at black feminism its roots, its role, and its implications. From Charles Darwin and nineteenth-century racism to black nationalism and the Nation of Islam, from Baptist women's groups to James Baldwin; E. Frances White takes on one institution after another as she re-centers the role of black women in the United States' intellectual heritage. White presents identity politics as a complex activity, with entangled branches of race and gender, of invisibility and voyeurism, of defiance and passivity and conformism. White's powerful introduction draws on oral narratives from her own family history to illuminate the nature of narrative, both what is said and what is left unsaid.She then sets the historical stage with a helpful history of the inception and development of black feminism and a critique of major black feminist writings. In the three chapters that follow, she addresses the obstacles black feminism has already surmounted and must continue to traverse.Confronting what White calls "the politics of respectability," these chapters move the reader from simplistic views of race and gender in the nineteenth century through black nationalism and the radical movements of the sixties, and their relationship to feminist thought, to the linkages between race, gender, and sexuality in the works of such giants as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. No one who finishes Dark Continent of Our Bodies will look at race and gender in the same way again. Historian E. Frances White is Dean of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University. ... Read more

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Required Reading - White Racism: A Psychohistory - and Not for the Faint of Heart
This is a profound and disturbing book, relying on Freud's theory to describe and explain a civilization built on a fixation that expresses itself in racism as much as in the tendency to build skyscrapers and limitless finance markets, while devaluing all that is human, spontaneous, sensual, or emotional.Kovel takes us through the beginnings of racism as it has underlain European history, through antisemitism and up through the Old South with its straightforward bigotry, and then on to our present world of a rationalized society that, seemingly without human intention, systematically discards and marginalizes people of color.Kovel shows that Puritanism is alive and well in many forms taken for granted in Western society today, whether credit card numbers, skyscrapers, bleach, or nuclear weapons.

This book requires guts and heart to read in its entirety, and might leave one either depressed or determined to nurture all that is sensual, humane, and alive in our world.White Racism: A Psychohistory is indispensible to anyone truly interested in understanding the psychological underpinnings of Western culture, and appears to have been the beginning of Kovel's courageous and lifelong mission to understand other Western - and in one case, uniquely American - cultural phenomena that have rooted themselves in twin commitments to the eradication of life and the acquisition of property. ... Read more

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Thirty years after Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty," the United States still lags behind most Western democracies in national welfare systems, lacking such basic programs as national health insurance and child care support. Some critics have explained the failure of social programs by citing our tradition of individual freedom and libertarian values, while others point to weaknesses within the working class. In The Color of Welfare, Jill Quadagno takes exception to these claims, placing race at the center of the "American Dilemma."

From Reconstruction to Lyndon Johnson and beyond, Quadagno reveals how American social policy has continually foundered on issues of race. Drawing on extensive primary research, Quadagno shows how the anti-poverty programs became inextricably intertwined with the civil rights movement. As progress for job training, a guaranteed annual income, and housing for the poor became linked to such controversial issues as affirmative action, welfare reform, and racial intergration of the suburbs, a white backlash arose that undermined support for the welfare state. Once again America witnessed a "continual reconfiguration of racial inequality in the nation's social, political, and economic institutions."

In the 1960s, the United States embarked on a journey to resolve the "American Dilemma." Yet instead of finally instituting full democratic rights for all its citizens, the policies enacted in that turbulent decade failed dismally. The Color of Welfare reveals the root cause of this failure--the inability to address racial inequality. ... Read more

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An indictment of American public policies
Jill Quadagno argues that governments (reflecting the sentiments of moneyed constituents) bought into and even reinforced stereotypes about women of color being 'welfare queens'.

Contrasting with the atmosphere of the authorizing legislation, society believed that these women needed to work outside the home and those who did not were 'lazy'. Black women especially found themselves being portrayed as the 'outsider'.

White women were still on welfare and had always comprised a majority of the program recipients, but politicians knew they could not create public outrage and internal disorder against somebody who more or less resembled the status quo.They had to attack somebody who was so `different' from themselves.

Neither the realities of a tight job market, lax community infrastructure, non-existent mass transit, or the exorbitant cost of quality and safe child care shattered those carefully-spun stereotypes. That positioning also made it easy for the government to ignore how little the monthly check was actually buying by the 1990's because it had not been adjusted for inflation.

Color of Welfare
The Color of Welfare does an excellent job of tracing the evolution of the U.S. welfare state. Quadagno explores the major programs of the welfare system. The main conclusion is that racism was the major factor in thedevelopment of policies designed to help those in need. Quadagno chroniclesthe political games and their impact on the services to the poor. Eachmajor program or department responsible for the distribution of welfarebenefits is explored and critiqued. Overall, a good source of backgroundknowledge of the maze of the programs and benefits that make up the welfaresystem. ... Read more

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"Racism and Prejudice" teaches tweens and teens about diversity and acceptance without badgering or insulting their intelligence. This clearly-written book deals with delicate, sensitive issues and answers questions such as: Is it ever okay to hate or discriminate against a person because of their race, gender, ability, or sexual orientation? Obviously it is never okay, and this book provides coping and resistance tools to those who have experienced racism and prejudice. Quotes from people who have fought prejudice make the topic 'real'. ... Read more