Race Traitor [Paperback]

Noel Ignatiev (Editor), John Garvey (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415913934 | ISBN-13: 978-0415913935 | Publication Date: May 2, 1996 | Edition: 1

Race Traitor brings together voices ranging from tenured university professors to skinheads and prison inmates to discuss the "white question" in America.

Working from the premise that the white race has been socially constructed, Race Traitor is a call for the disruption of white conformity and the formation of a New Abolitionism to dissolve it.

In a time when white supremicist thinking seems to be gaining momentum, Race Traitor brings together voices ranging from tenured university professors to skinheads and prison inmates to discuss the "white question" in America. Through popular culture, current events, history and personal life stories, the essays analyze the forces that hold the white race together--and those that promise to tear it apart. When a critical mass of people come together who, though they look white, have ceased to act white, the white race will undergo fission and former whites will be able to take part in building a new human community.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The journal Race Traitor began in 1992 with one lofty ambition: "to serve as an intellectual center for those seeking to abolish the white race." The editors define the white race as a historically constructed social group consisting of all those who benefit from having white skin and are thus empowered by the status quo. They see the concept of whiteness as a barrier to justice and equality, insisting that deeply ingrained social problems cannot be solved until the privileges of white skin are abolished. Since they define the white race as a historical rather than a natural classification, it follows that this system can be undone--but only if a noticeable segment of whites are willing to dismiss conformity to their color. "Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity," the editors declare. The enemies of social progress, then, are not just white supremacists but anyone unwilling to dismiss the benefits conferred by racial status.

This anthology contains essays from the first five editions of Race Traitor, and its contributors are a varied lot: professors, poets, activists, skinheads, and prison inmates all toss their opinions into the racial ring. The essays range from sociological examinations of "whiteness" to examples of rampant racism and individuals' attempts to stand up to it. Though the book's introduction states that "Race Traitor exists not to make converts," the arguments presented in this collection have the power and grace to do just that. --Shawn Carkonen

Review

[T]he clarity and frankness with which Race Traitor holds its racial nominalism forth is probably unmatched in the widening congregation of critical work on whiteness. -- Postmodern Culture
The value of Race Traitor comes from its confessional quality, a view of repentant and sometimes angry whites kneeling at the rail to purge their souls of all racist taint. -- Quarterly Black Review of Books
Race Traitor is among the strongest, funniest and most politically charged critiques of whiteness to appear since slave storytellers spun out the Master and John tales. Throughout its brief existence as a just-above-ground journal, it has combined penetrating articles on the history and sociology of race with inspired manifest telling cultural commentaries and frontline reports from the struggle to abolish whiteness. -- David R. Roediger, University of Minnesota, author of The Wages of Whiteness
In the tradition of John Brown, whose epithet and agenda Race Traitor controversially memorializes in its title, the articles collected here do violence to liberal complacency and scholarly apathy. More such race treachery, such loyalty to mankind, to bend John Brown's motto, needs to be committed--not subsumed into academic or belle lettrestic discourse. -- Kathryne V. Lindberg, Wayne State University
Race Traitor is the most revolutionary challenge to racism made by American-European intellectuals in my lifetime. -- Ishmael Reed
Thrilling to read! Required reading for all white hip-hop fans. -- Upski, author of Bomb the Suburbs
...its operative principle is simple: to break the power of whiteness in this country by encouraging people to renounce the wages of whiteness. --Lingua Franca, Oct. 1996
[T]he clarity and frankness with which Race Traitor holds its racial nominalism forth is probably unmatched in the widening congregation of critical work on whiteness. -- Postmodern Culture

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (May 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415913934
• ISBN-13: 978-0415913935
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lumpen rage at Harper's Ferry, September 18, 2010

By 

Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Traitor (Paperback)

"Race Traitor", edited by Noel Ignatiev and John Garvey, is a disturbing book.

What's disturbing is not the authors' call to "abolish the White race". Those who accuse Messrs. Ignatiev and Garvey of calling for genocide have obviously never read the book. The authors argue (correctly) that there is no such thing as a White race, that the idea of Whiteness is a social construct connected to oppression based on purported racial differences, and that "the White race" in *this* sense must therefore be abolished. Ignatiev doesn't know exactly what kind of identity should replace Whiteness, but he does have a few suggestions: Germanic and Celtic identities, Blackness or some kind of "melting pot" identity (his preferred option).

Only a racist could find this part of the book disturbing.

Personally, I think the problem is the rest of this volume!

Ignatiev and Garvey romanticize the lumpen proletariat, and seem to consider those with a lumpen lifestyle as the real force for revolutionary change in American society. Ignatiev even suggests that White lumpens attracted to neo-Nazi groups might be a revolutionary force, provided they are suitably converted and become race traitors instead. He also regards Whites drawn to militia groups as a potential base for recruits, criticizing the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center for tracking such groups.

"Race Traitor" contains one article expressing some kind of sympathy with Colin Ferguson, the man responsible for the Long Island Rail Road massacre. There is an interview with an ex-Nazi who claims to have been voluntarily homeless, and who related to drug addicts "by shooting up with them". Another article, apparently written by anarcho-surrealists, claim that looting during riots is great fun! And so it goes on, sometimes making you wonder whether the editors are really serious or simply want to strike a militant pose. Ignatiev, after all, is a Jewish Harvard professor. I can't picture him in upstate Idaho, recruiting ex-Nazis at some trailer park. But, then, I never met Noel, so who knows?

It's also unclear how "Race Traitor" really wants to abolish the White race (i.e. racism). They seem to place heavy emphasis on a kind of purely personal statements, such as refusing to move to the suburbs, declaring yourself to be non-White in public, listening to Black music, wearing dreadlocks, etc. I get the impression that "Race Traitor" vacillates between purely symbolic acts of defiance and desperate violence. It's difficult to see how any of this could "abolish the White race"?

I'm not saying this is a "bad" book. It's hard-hitting, provocative and somewhat insane, and it sure makes you think outside the box. Still, I would advise people to stay clear from the Harper's Ferry Organization, or whoever is behind this hit piece of agit prop.

One day, the so-called White race will indeed be "abolished", but probably not using then methods described in "Race Traitor"...

17 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the fragility of whiteness, November 28, 2000

By 

peaceful dominican (nyc, ny) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Traitor (Hardcover)

this is a fantastic collection of essays and poetry (2 poems). it is necessary for americans to finally come to terms with the fragility of being "white". why does being "white"-skinned, or having a white parent, not prevent the discrmination of Latinos, Blacks, and Asians? the simple truth is that "white" and "race" are all socially constructed "truths" to divide a potentially awe-inspiring nation of nations. what happens when "white" people wake up and call for an end to racial oppression? read the book...

19 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The goal is not genocide, April 15, 2004

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"spankyray" (Marina, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Race Traitor (Paperback)

People who rail against this collection of work generally do so for one or both of the following reasons: 1) They have an investment in maintaining whiteness in the US; these people may be "white" or not. 2) They misunderstand the goal of Igantiev and Garvey to be the genocide of light-skinned people, which it most definitely is not. Their goal is to socially destruct the significance of whiteness, not to kill anybody. If you read the publication, you'll see this clearly. Buy it and see for yourself; if you don't like it, return it. It's an important and thought-provoking piece of literature for people of all colors who are disgusted racism in the USA.