Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action

by Jennifer L. Pierce

How is it that recipients of white privilege deny the role they play in reproducing racial inequality? Racing for Innocence addresses this question by examining the backlash against affirmative action in the late 1980s and early 1990s―just as courts, universities, and other institutions began to end affirmative action programs. This book recounts the stories of elite legal professionals at a large corporation with a federally mandated affirmative action program, as well as the cultural narratives about race, gender, and power in the news media and Hollywood films. Though most white men denied accountability for any racism in the workplace, they recounted ways in which they resisted―whether wittingly or not― incorporating people of color or white women into their workplace lives. Drawing on three different approaches―ethnography, narrative analysis, and fiction―to conceptualize the complexities and ambiguities of race and gender in contemporary America, this book makes an innovative pedagogical tool.

Genres: Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2012

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

While working as a paralegal in a corporate in-house legal department in 1989, Jennifer L. Pierce witnessed the backlash against affirmative action first hand. A policy that was intended to even the playing field in higher education and employment for women and minorities was turned on its head, as claims of reverse discrimination against white men (nearly all later proven specious) were given center stage in national newspapers. The issues are still relevant today, as seen in the October 2012 Supreme Court hearings on affirmative action related to Fisher v. University of Texas. Meticulously researched, and concisely written, Racing for Innocence revisits the affirmative action battles of the 1980s and ’90s through then-and-now interviews with attorneys from this legal department, analysis of news coverage, and reviews of the most popular films of the time. You’ll never look at "Mississippi Burning" or "Ghosts of Mississippi" the same way again.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Makes some very important points, and successfully convinced me that race based affirmative action is needed, but I took issue with the book's organization. At times it felt that Pierce was being redundant just for the sake of achieving a sufficient number of pages. Chapter 2, in particular, was guilty of this, and I'm not at all sure that Chapter 5 was even necessary in the first place.
This research is important but perhaps would have been better presented in an article.

[Meagan Abell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read for me as a young woman in male dominated industry, and I was grateful to read other experiences and see data behind it. I was frustrated that the last chapter was fiction to tie a little bow around and ending for it.

[Mills College Library]

331.13309 P616 2012