Customer Reviews

Possessive Investment In Whiteness

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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.

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.

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.

Professor Lipsitz has written non-fiction that reads like a novel about America's most unfortunate issue. He wastes no time in declaring that "Whiteness has a cash value..." He skillfully takes the reader through an economic, historic and psychological saga that demonstrates the value of white identity in a variety of areas. What makes this book so interesting is that Professor Lipsitz goes beyond the black/white binary. He pays particular attention to European immigrants who were initially not part of "white" society until it served a purpose. Discussions on Asian and Latino Americans are informative and fresh. He is fearless in his discussion of white supremacy/privilege and throws a huge monkey wrench into the debate surrounding so-called affirmative action. This book is a must read for anyone starting an investigtion into the new discipline of White Studies or as a adjunct to Black Studies.

One reviewer, below, seems utterly outraged at the notion that there could be a white "culture" of possessive investment, although he is entirely comfortable throwing around terms like "culture of success" and "inherited culture" when referring to non-white groups. Talk about skinning a cat another way. Lipsitz may occasionally overindulge his tendency to psychologize, but to dismiss his account of whiteness as an "organizing principle in social and cultural relations," as L. puts it, would be in error. An excellent introduction to the topic. Lots of other good stuff out there, too: Roediger, Frankenberg, et al. Dive in.

As a white male, I have witnessed the mechanics of white privilege all my life. I have become increasingly aware of the unfair advantages open to me for no reason other than race, thus I have been hoping to find an academic assessment of this phenomenon. This book covers the topic well, though sometimes the author's polemic detracts from his compelling data. Those who want to pretend the problem doesn't exist will undoubtedly use the author's passion as an excuse to dismiss the book.

But there are compelling examples that deserve our attention. For example, Jennifer Gratz successfully sued the University of Michigan for "reverse discrimination" because a few dozen non-white students were admitted ahead of her despite having lower SATs and grades. What went unreported at the time is the fact that more than 1,400 white students -- students whose parents were alumni or who happened to live in areas favored by the school's board -- also were admitted ahead of her despite having lower scores and grades. The implicit assumption is that it's OK to accord special privileges to white students whose parents are alumni, or who live in politically advantageous areas; but it's an abomination to extend similar privileges to a handful of non-white students.

Incidents like this point to a systematic oppression that has little to do with violence and much to do with subtle manipulation. It may not even be conscious. The author correctly observes that it is a kind of investment that began centuries ago when white people took possession of our country's land through programs such as the Homestead Act and who made fortunes at the expense of slaves and indentured servants. The legacy continues with each generation of privileged white kids who willingly accept their inheritance, whether it is money, land, belongings, a family business, or easy access to schools and jobs through family connections.

The question for current generations of whites in America is whether we want to continue playing a rigged game, or have we the integrity to play on a level field?

great purchase. book came quickly and was very cheap! would recommend buying from this seller!

I was hoping for a an authentic writing regarding this extremely avoiding subject. This book will shake the boots of many whites. It is not often that a author (white), will take a stand and become cannon fodder from his white peers,on white privilege and its impact on themselves and others. Whites in general have become tired of people of color, particularity blacks discussing the issue of race and culture disproprotionality and disparity. The author has presented information and fact as a consideration for food for thought. This writing is an opportunity for whites to put aside the automatic default of denial. An opportunity with access to embrace your personal discomfort "authentically"!!! I found chapter 5 (How Whiteness Works:Inheritance, wealth, and Health) to be particularity interesting. It is like eyeglass looking into the past, an illumination of the present, and a crystal ball into the future, (should we not change). I ask us to answer two questions: Why people of color at the top of most list things negative and bad in society and at the bottom of the list of those things considered positive and good? And by whose standards are we measuring them? This book give us a chance to face our racial fears, and perhaps become empathize with the oppressed.

I cannot remember another book that had this much sophistry and demagoguery packed into this little (300 odd pages) a book. What this tome represents is an attempted refutation of both the long standing enculturation arguments of Thomas Sowell and the hereditarian arguments of Murray and Herrnstein by means of the ingenious use of a politicized psychological profile.

Essentially, this book is an attempt to skin a cat another way. Taken aback by convincing arguments as to the long term cultural nature of success (as detailed in such books as "The Economics and Politics of Race" and "Race and Culture" by Thomas Sowell), this is a base attempt to convince the reader by means of a personalized narrative that an unspoken privelage system between whites exists.

In othere words, this book is simple propoganda dressed up as serious work. No attempt is made to address ther sucdcess of non-white minorities that have suffered horrendous discrimination, and no attempt is made to address the success of blacks and latinos that come from successfull backgrounds in other countries and continue to do so years after assimilation into US culture, all of which suggests inhereted culture -not white psychology- is the main reason behind success or failure.

This book is a bald attempt at blame. It is the last line of the Evil Whitey thesis which has finally run its course, and it's weakest intellectual link. It is clear how far the left has gotten that it now rests its civil rights vision on such ephemeral bugaboos as "unconsicous racism".

What H.L. Mencken said about government could very easily be attached to its greatest defenders on the modern Left- "The entire aim of practical politics is to keep the public alarmed with a series hobgoblins and ghosts, all of them fictional. The average modern intellectual has more superstitions than the average medieval peasant"

That pretty much sums up this turkey in one apt phrase. This is a great book- if you plan to use it as a bookstop.

George Lipsitz may have a decent point here - that whiteness comes with advantages. But reading his book is much too tiresome to attempt to understand this point. Like far too many academics, his style is unreadable (ex: way too many buzzwords). His examples are weak, and he shows an obvious distaste for conservatives. Try reading Andrew Hacker's Two Nations instead.