Invisible Privilege : A Memoir About Race, Class, and Gender (Hardcover)

by Paula Rothenberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Philosopher Rothenberg became a bogeywoman in the early 1990s PC wars when her textbook, Race, Class and Gender in the United States, was attacked by conservatives. Now, in an episodic memoir, she aims to "reflect in a more personal way on what it means to be a privileged white woman coming to terms with that privilege and acquiring some deeper understanding of the ways in which race, class, and gender difference is constructed." Gender was her first frontier: in addition to growing up in a patriarchal family and enduring sexist taunts during adolescence, she faced discomfiting teachers at the University of Chicago and was sexually assaulted by a member of her dissertation committee. Later, anti-Vietnam War activism and a leftist study group awakened her to a broader critique of America's social structure. In 1980, she began co-teaching classes on racism and sexism at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Despite some academic jargon, Rothenberg writes with refreshing candor: in one vignette, for example, she acknowledges that her family ties gave her the financial wherewithal to buy a home. She argues convincingly that a decision to "teach tolerance" in response to the sometimes hostile relations between college students ignores "the real differences in power and opportunity" that originally caused the divisions. And her criticism of the ways well-intentioned liberals "jealously guard" privilege for their own children is often potent, though her account of racism in New Jersey's educational "tracking" system leaves lingering questions about how and when such liberals should best make their sacrifice. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This book presents one woman's story of her life viewed through the lenses of gender, class, and race. Rothenberg examines the ways, both positive and negative, in which these three factors have shaped her experiences and opportunities. The purpose of this self-examination of privilege is to "uncover the forces that often render it invisible to those who benefit from it most." By turning the microscope on herself, she hopes to explore the unspoken privileges of the white middle class in the United States. Her previous work, the college text Race, Class and Gender in the United States, was one of the first contemporary texts on diversity and met with a firestorm of criticism, especially from the Right, which vilified her for starting the political correctness movement. Although she does shed some interesting light on the ways race, class, and gender influence life in the United States, sometimes the reader is left wondering whether she doesn't go overboard in her analysis. Recommended for academic libraries.
-Roseanne Castellino, Arthur D. Little, Cambridge, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700610049
• ISBN-13: 978-0700610044
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,261,503 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PRIVILEGE: HOW DOES IT HELP? HOW DOES IT HURT?, March 11, 2000

By A Customer

"Invisible Privilege" is a multilayered book that I will enjoy reading more than once. It has the liveliness, humor, and candor of a good autobiography. But instead of merely telling one person's story, the author wears the analytical and critical lenses through which she views our society, to look at her own life -- without apology or mea culpa. She gives up the dearly held privilege of many of us "white liberals" to pretend that, in spite of the impact of race, class, and gender on American life, we somehow wriggled through unscathed, perhaps because of our own "natural" goodness. The author provides funny, poignant, eye-opening examples of how no one can rest on the laurels of being a good person with good intentions in this whirlwind society of ours. She is deepening the discussions of discrimination and exclusion, prejudice and hate, as well as of being human, and I look forward to her next book.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive Insights into Significant Problems, April 17, 2000

By	Hugh Aitken (Lancaster, NH) - See all my reviews

A very well-done combination of personal recollection and political insights. The questions of gender, race and class are often presented in an off-putting manner that only appeals to the already committed. Because of the genuiness and the clarity of this book, it can serve as an introduction to these areas for those who still have something to learn about them.

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars POOR READ!, December 10, 2005

By	Dwayne D. Hudson "Psychology Major" (Atlanta, Ga.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to agree with the review before me, this book is purely a Marxist totalitarian charade with extremely one sided analogies.
To Paula Rothenberg; if you hate the U.S.A. and freedom, then leave it for a communist country!