Possessive Investment In Whiteness [Paperback]

George Lipsitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1998

Attacking the common view that whiteness is a meaningless category of identity, Lipsitz shows that public policy and private prejudice insure that whites wind up on top of the social hierarchy. Passionately and clearly written, this wide-ranging book probes into the social and material rewards that accrue to "the possessive investment in whiteness". Lipsitz sums up the ways that public policy has virtually excluded communities of colour from everything that American society defines as desirable: first-rate education, decent housing, asset accumulation, political power, social status, satisfying work, and even the power to shape and narrate their own history. White supremacy is no thing of the past, no fringe movement. It is a pervasive and pernicious system that restricts the political and cultural agency of African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos every day. Unearned and unacknowledged, race-based advantages, not greater merit or a superior work ethic, account for white privilege. Lipsitz's ultimate point is not to condemn all white people as racists but to challenge everyone to begin a principled examination of personal actions and political commitments. Exposing the system of unfairness is not enough. People of all groups - but especially white people because they benefit from that system - have to work toward eradicating the rewards of whiteness. George Lipsitz is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC, San Diego, and the author of "A Life in the Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition" (Temple), "Rainbow At Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s", "Dangerous Crossroads, and Time Passages".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If we could only take one book with us into the 21st century, this is the one I would choose. With lucidity and passion, George Lipsitz reveals that so-called 'color-blind' public policy actually contributes to the maintenance of racism; that white privilege and the demonizing of colored people are two sides of the same coin; and that whiteness is both a huge subsidy as well as a noose around the necks of working-class white folk. His insights into how the color line works in the realm of public policy, politics, and culture, and what we must do to destroy it, can save our lives." --Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America "George Lipsitz is one of the few historians of the U.S. who commands an audience eager to read what he writes on virtually any subject. What sets his work still more remarkably apart is the discipline never to abuse that trust...This book is a case in point. As rigorous as it is creative, this collection combines a firm grasp of the material roots and consequences of white supremacy with striking cultural criticism. Its extensive treatment of Asian-American and Latino/a experiences breaks decisively with the tendency of studies of whiteness to reduce race to a black-white binary. Few works on whiteness discuss past and present together with such subtlety, care and passion." --David R. Roediger

From the Publisher

In this unflinching look at white supremacy, George Lipsitz probes into the ways that race determines life chances and structures experience in the contemporary United States

Outstanding Books Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (June 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566396352
• ISBN-13: 978-1566396356
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Racism In A Nutshell, May 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Possessive Investment In Whiteness (Paperback)

How often have you walked around thinking about an issue, thinking how helpful it would be if you could only articulate those thoughts? And, one day, you pick up a book and find that the author has spoken for you, clearly defined those issues and provided a history that explains the causes of your disquietude? George Lipsitz has done just that in "The Possessive Investment In Whiteness... ." Why is affirmative action under attack and by whom? How do Euro-Americans benefit from skin privilege whether they are racist or not? Why is California "the Mississippi of the 1990s"? What was the real agenda of Mr. Bakke in launching a legal battle against "reverse racism"? Who was Bill Moore? What are the roles of Clarence Thomas and Ward Callender in claiming and perpetuating a conservative agenda that supports skin privilege? Lipsitz answers these questions and more. While Lipsitz speaks from a decidedly liberal stance, he supports each of his contentions with a shopping list of facts to support them.

This is a valuable contribution to American discourse on the issue of race and how it affects, still, American society. More importantly, it is one of the few books I have read that seems intended for the education of Euro-Americans who, as Lipsitz makes clear, are also victims of racism and can only benefit from its elimination as well as the elimination of benefits based solely or largely, and certainly historically, upon skin privilege. But how can institutionalized racism that permeates the entire history of this country be fought? The first step must be to recognize what the possessive investment in whiteness is and why and how it is perpetuated. Lipsitz has offered a remarkable primer for that first step to every American citizen who longs for the day that we will all be, truly, just Americans who are judged only by the content of our character.

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Excellent, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Possessive Investment In Whiteness (Paperback)

I can't disagree more with the negative reviews of this book. I found it to be thorough, nuanced, and thought provoking. Lipsitz's thesis about the possessive investment in whiteness is an intriguing one and frames the issue of whiteness is a helpful manner. Particularly impressive to me is the range of his work, which truly meets the challenge to do interdisciplinary work (a challenge that we too often fail at or neglect). He incorporates and integrates analyses of the economy, of the law (such as housing law) and policy with studies of culture and the media. Dozens of books have been published under the rubric of "whiteness studies" in the past decade (some of it of mediocre quality). This book, though, should go on the "must read" list of anyone interested in this growing field.

50 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provactative, Informative and Healing, March 16, 2000

By 

Kim King (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Possessive Investment In Whiteness (Paperback)

Lipsitz's book not only informs (with one of the best summariesI've seen of the social, economic and political impact ofinstitutionalized white supremacy throughout the twentieth century) heoffers hope that humanity will heal the deep wounds of white racism. The book insightfully explores the reasons why so-called "white" people continue to be complicit in racist oppression, how whiteness and white privilege are used by politicians, and how the psychology of whitness functions. His willingness to relinquish and critique his own white privilege in the name of social justice is the healing message that humanity needs in the wake of so many "white" atrocities.