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48th out of 207 books
—
180 voters
Learning to Be White: Money, Race, and God in America
by
Thandeka
Thandeka explores the politics of the white experience in America. Tracing the links between religion, class, and race, she reveals the child abuse, ethnic conflicts, class exploitation, poor self-esteem, and a general feeling of self-contempt that are the wages of whiteness.
Paperback, 184 pages
Published
November 1st 2000
by Bloomsbury Academic
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Thandeka takes a psychological approach to understanding white racism and contends that "whiteness" is a elite standard of life and worldview that most middle and working class whites never attain but aspire to. In order to do that they must forsake their working class and ethnic cultural roots to appropriate whiteness and become "white." This becomes a kind of white racism against working class whites. She also posits that many whites were shamed as children against socializing or befriending p...more
Purchased after I heard the author speak at a UU Church I attended. Still working to get all the way through. Absorbs me completely whenever I pick it up.
T takes us through her own journey researching and interviewing white folk and finding a common thread that many whites are able to identify a crucial moment in their lives where they were called upon by their caretakers or peers to do something unjust to someone identified as non-white as a visible sign of their choice to identify with their...more
T takes us through her own journey researching and interviewing white folk and finding a common thread that many whites are able to identify a crucial moment in their lives where they were called upon by their caretakers or peers to do something unjust to someone identified as non-white as a visible sign of their choice to identify with their...more
I have met and personally found her likeable and intelligent, but the book should have been titled how black people perceive whites rather than learning to be white. If you think of the book as a painting, the canvas is a racially divided country. I agree with that perception, and I think it would be easy to support that assertion with anecdotes and statistics. But she projects onto that canvas a psychological theory that is much more difficult to support, so difficult that she does not support...more
This book is really dense, but is an excellent read, especially for those like me who are older and grew up being acculturated into systemic racism. The author really understands and frames the wounds that socialization into racism inflicts on white people in a way that almost all other AR/AO work doesn't address. This book is helping me heal and is making it easier for me to talk about racism and oppression as a white person of privilege. Not an easy read by any means (how long is it taking me...more
Thandeka posits that racism has its own harrowing effects on whites, who are forced through emotional abuse to deny parts of themselves in order to conform to a social construction of whiteness that benefits upper class elites. This is a powerful invitation to white people to reflect on their formational experiences of being “white.”
Wow! This was a fascinating book. It was our English Dept. summer book read, and it knocked my socks off. I learned so much about being white, how race came to be in America, and the wages of and for whiteness. It's academic (definitely something to be read in chunks, talked about with others) so it's not a beach read or anything, but so worth the time.
Jan 20, 2009
Amalia
added it
A classic. One of the FEW (I can count them on one hand) moments in law school when I got to buy a book that actually mattered!
I am reading this book as a 'book club' of sorts - we are discussing it bi-weekly in a small group before sunday service at my UU church.
So far this book has really shown me a lot that I have never seen firsthand in my own life. It gives me some insight in understanding the way things are the way that they are as far as classism and racism in the modern day US.
The discussions, as you might imagine, are passionate and enlightening. I am really enjoying the experience an learning a lot.
So far this book has really shown me a lot that I have never seen firsthand in my own life. It gives me some insight in understanding the way things are the way that they are as far as classism and racism in the modern day US.
The discussions, as you might imagine, are passionate and enlightening. I am really enjoying the experience an learning a lot.
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Thought provoking book about how white racial identity is formed/ forced upon Euro American kids. Related to a lot of it, made sense of some emotions that I hadn't been able to really name before.
Worth reading--- a way to talk about race with white (" ") people that goes beyond guilt towards reunification and restoration
Worth reading--- a way to talk about race with white (" ") people that goes beyond guilt towards reunification and restoration
Interesting book, but I disagree with its basic thesis [which states that white racial identity is rooted in shame]. It also is based on anecdotal research, not on true social/behavioral science.
Historical and psychosocial analysis of the "wages FOR whiteness" -- the process by which white racial identity is established.
Something every American should read.
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