Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America

by Rich Benjamin

As America becomes more and more racially diverse, Rich Benjamin noticed a phenomenon: Some communities were actually getting less multicultural. So he got out a map, found the whitest towns in the USA--and moved in.

A journalist-adventurer, Benjamin packed his bags and embarked on a 26,909-mile journey throughout the heart of white America, to some of the fastest-growing and whitest locales in our nation. Benjamin calls these enclaves "Whitopias." In this groundbreaking book, he shares what he learned as a black man in Whitopia.

Benjamin's journey to unlock the mysteries of Whitopia took him from a 3-day white separatist retreat with links to Aryan Nations in North Idaho to exurban mega-churches down South, and many points in between. A compelling raconteur, bon vivant, and scholar, Benjamin reveals what Whitopias are like and explores the urgent social and political implications of this startling phenomenon.

Benjamin's groundbreaking study is one of few to have illuminated in advance the social and political forces propelling the rise of Donald Trump. After all, Trump carried 94% of America's Whitopian counties. And he won a median 67% of the vote in Whitopia compared to 46% of the vote nationwide.

Leaving behind speculation or sensationalism, Benjamin explores the future of whiteness and race in an increasingly multicultural nation.

"A thoroughly engaging and eye-opening look at an urgent social issue.” -- BOOKLIST (starred review).

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Sociology, Politics, Social Issues, Social Justice, Anthropology

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

I like to entertain, read, travel, golf, and eat.

I am a cultural anthropologist and the author of Searching for Whitopia. My writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Also, I've appeared as a commentator on MSNBC and CNN. I am grateful for the support that my work has received from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Ford Foundation, Princeton University, the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Historical Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine living in a wonderful community where you know your neighbors. Your children attend good schools. Everything is clean and safe, and if you leave your doors unlocked, the worst thing that will happen is that someone may sneak in and leave some surplus zucchini on your kitchen counter.

It sounds like paradise, doesn't it? A veritable utopia, if you will.

Does it make you happy or uncomfortable to learn that only white people live there?

"White flight" from the cities to the suburbs is nothing new, though the trend seems to be on the rise as many exurban areas are now almost exclusively white.

The author refers to these settlements as "Whitopias."

"They are communal pods that cannily preserve a white-bread world, a throwback to an imagined past with "authentic" 1950s values and the nifty suburban amenities available today." White people move there seeking to escape from "diversity done badly", or searching out their own "kind" to be "more culturally comfortable." As to remaining a predominantly white community, residents use veiled terms like "preserving neighborhood character."

"I wish I could go back in time," says one Whitopian resident. "We had stable lives. Mom could stay at home, and we could afford it. There wasn't trouble then like there is today."
This seems a familiar theme, a desire to have the "kids grow up in Mayberry."

And it's true, the good-old-days were great...as long as you were white.


Rich Benjamin trekked across the US, literally from sea to shining sea, visiting Whitopias, even living for a while in three of the communities, all in an effort to learn what makes these enclaves tick Without exception, he is welcomed with open arms, invited into their houses and out for a round of golf. White people happily attend his dinner parties and offer to loan him the use of their vacation homes. Did I mention that Rich Benjamin is black?

"I, of course, am the raisin in the plain yogurt."

He also holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and exudes a well-educated, professorial charm. Would these Whitopias have been so welcoming to a young black high-school drop-out? Probably not...though it's something of a moot point, as THAT gentleman could never afford to live in one of these communities.

To be fair, Benjamin also spends time in the company of a less friendly group - an Aryan Nation conference, where one attendee goes out of his way to explain to Benjamin, "We believe that God created all people. But white Anglo-Saxon Christians are the apple of His eye."

Shudder...

He also picks up on a nationwide fear of Latino immigration, sagely noting that terms frequently applied to immigration - "flood" and "tidal wave" are the same terms used to describe natural disasters.


It makes me uncomfortable to admit that I am part of the problem. I left a crime-ridden and terrifying city, not for racial reasons, but because I wanted my kids to grow up the way I did - in a suburban ranch house with a big backyard. (Mayberry? Maybe... There WAS a fishin' hole...)The area looked gorgeous on the map, surrounded by state-game lands, it was green as far as the eye could see. In reality, it is white. Really, REALLY white. Clinton County, Pennsylvania is 98.26% white; far whiter than most of the Whitopias Benjamin visited. Why is it so white? Well, it's an exceedingly rural area. There's not much to do unless you enjoy hunting, fishing and boating. Jobs are scare, though I suppose that's true many places. Are blacks not made to feel welcome? I honestly can't answer that, though I suspect there would be places in the area that would not exactly send out the Welcome Wagon to ANY people of color.

Benjamin's conclusion is that the majority of Whitopia residents "are endearing and kind" and "are not active racists" BUT, "their communities make a choice getaway for those who are."

"Through most of the twentieth century, racial discrimination was deliberate and intentional. Today, racial segregation and division often result from habits, policies and institutions that are not explicitly designed to discriminate. Contrary to popular belief, discrimination or segregation do not require animus. They thrive even in the absence of prejudice or ill will.
It's common to have racism without 'racists.'"

My conclusion? Based on how the author was treated by the residents of these Whitopias, white people seem fine with people of color...as long as they're wealthy, and behave just like white people.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a mixed bag but in truth; better than expected.  This book was first published and has been on my shelf since 2009.  At first print, Obama had been elected the first African-American President in history but had not yet begun "Presidenting".  Benjamin shares his journey through several white enclaves (>90% white) which he call "Whitopias" in various places in the US.  I was a bit put off initially by Benjamin's intro in which he says

"I am black. Let me warn you by saying: The “black-white race divide” bores me. [sic] This journey is about our nation’s future, not about how white and black people are getting along.

Hello! That is ostensibly what this book was supposed to be about. But he also shows some self awareness of his position when he says about himself

"I am what whites call a “no-demand black”—my company is not predicated on whites’ having to let go an ugly stereotype, untangle a stubborn view, or something like that."

Benjamin is an articulate, short, very slight, amiable, dark-skinned but unimposing black person. His whole persona is cultivated to present a inoffensive, person of color so that people will feel comfortable talking with him honestly. He largely succeeded.  Well sort of…
 
This book is really about the willful re-segregation of majority/minority multicultural populations.  Specifically, small segments of white population choosing to separate to live with like-minded folks.  In other words, they seek to be around folks that are just like them…reminiscent of the Borg in STNG.  Benjamin travels to 4 enclaves all around the country (Utah, Idaho, Georgia and NYC).  As one would expect, most of these folks are very conservative, very wealthy, and/or very religious.  He finds an exception in Manhattan where wealth is the ruling force.  Most of the residents in that neighborhood are Democrats who fully supported Obama, but live in a neighborhood that is 92% white non-Hispanic.  The self-segregation is in the form of a boundary of staggering wealth and/or acceptance in a Co-op (which is clearly where the "self-segregation" comes from).  Most of the book is a sort of glib validation of things most people would anticipate.  The people described in the book are racist.  Some of them know it and some are blissfully unaware.  There is also the fomentation of resentment and fear of the "other".  There is a selfish protection of privilege.  There is some religious bigotry at play. Most of all there seems to be some grand feats of self delusion .

"Alice says that many Californian transplants to Idaho are not racist, but “want to stick to their kind.”

Rampant racism, sexism and maintenance of the white male patriarchy along with some interesting insights. For example, his defining golf in terms of self esteem:

"On this landscaped haven within a haven, away from the cacophony of politics and the feminization of American culture—including the touchy-feely demands of her homes—white men can fortify their male friendships, their competitive drive, their free will, and their self-worth."

Self-fulfilling prophecies:

"Americans associate a homogenous white neighborhood with higher property values, friendliness, orderliness, hospitability, cleanliness, safety, and comfort. These seemingly race-neutral qualities are subconsciously inseparable from race and class in many whites’ minds."

Stunning cognitive dissonence:

"Jim added "It’s the same thing that happened in the black community. A lot of young men are like, ‘I don’t want to have the fool’s job flipping burgers at Burger King.’ You dig what I’m saying? We’re gonna have a buildup of a criminal underclass, ’cause it ain’t cool to be a tomato picker or a hamburger flipper.”

Ole Jim cannot imagine anyone but blacks flipping burgers and picking tomatoes and doesn't understand why they don't value an honest job. And a surprising bit of recent history of immigration legislation that has gone forgotten in 10 short years and the existence of "Numbers USA "a NRA like organization (except its concern was with illegal immigration) that owns politicians:

"Numbers USA belongs to a “network of hate groups,” which are “connected to each other through their staffs, boards of directors, and ideology,” contends Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. “We passed an immigration reform through the U.S. Senate in 2006. But in 2007 we lost sixteen votes in the Senate on immigration reform that was not terribly different from the previous bill. Numbers USA generated those phone calls which stopped the Senate’s effort to reform immigration. Behind the scenes, some senators were honest with us, and said, ‘This vote was not about public policy, it’s about racism.’ What they meant was that they were getting very ugly phone calls—enough to shut down the Capitol switchboard—and while those calls were often unreasonable and even offensive, they were enough to provoke a response and change votes.”

Remember this book was written pre-Obama. Interesting that the rhetoric hasn't changed in 15 years.

"Decades in the running, a right-wing drumbeat continues warning Americans that “government is on your back,” “you should keep your own money,” “let the market take care of it.” This political outlook feeds existing resentment over race, including “high taxes” for public services (assumed to be wasted on minorities). This stubborn, pervasive mind-set sows doubts about the viability of “one nation for all” and continually fertilizes popular Republican and corporate myths explaining economic hardship (too much government regulation, high taxes, and wasteful spending). It remains to be seen whether Democratic political victories in 2006 and 2008 and a bruising economic downturn will shake America loose from its thirty-year love affair with conservative dogma. “Deregulation.” (Blush.) “Privatization.” (Wink.) “Rising tides lift all boats.” (Smile.) Even with a Democratic President and Congress, “regulation” still remains a pejorative word.

Ummm, the answer is nope it didn't shake it at all. Benjamin also mentions several things about politics 10 years ago that are frighteningly familiar and prescient:

"The geography of opportunity—or, the geography of homogeneity—is becoming frighteningly entrenched. Such geography forecasts trouble for our democracy."

"The rest of America, beware: Politics in Whitopia may transform its voters’ hobbyhorses—school “choice,” taxpayer and private property rights, gated communities, and “color-blind” indifference—into sacred cows."

"This brand of racial centrism disguises the conservative tenor of the new white flight. This outlook champions taxpayer rights, subdivisions and gated communities, and children’s school choice, while granting ordinary whites, and the pols who pursue them, the license to deny that race is a factor in their decision-making and to minimize it in public debate. Out of idealism and self-interest, marshmallow centrists prefer “color-blind” perspectives, policies, and politicians."

"Here’s the rub: Many Whitopians willfully buck the American social contract. With the exception of military service and symbolic patriotism, they vocally question their responsibility to our government and claim to expect no benefit from it, or so-called “interference.” Characteristically, few red-state conservatives understand or acknowledge how handsomely and disproportionately the federal government subsidizes them and their states."

He left out "states rights" Benjamin also brings up the wealth gap which in his view leads even more to segregation by color than racism. His point is made in his example of NYC enclave where wealth provides a vehicle for weeding out people of color. Benjamin was talking about the wealth gap before it became popular.

"My journey through Whitopia reveals how increasing social inequality in America, even among whites, is not the casual result of “free markets,” but the product of deliberate political choices that cater to rich people’s interests and general partisanship."

"In terms of wealth, America is now the most unequal country in the industrialized world."

Benjamin does say some questionable things in an effort to be fair:

"It’s common to have racism without “racists.”

It is impossible to have racism without racists. What Benjamin is doing here is playing fast and loose with the definition of racist presumably to make the book more appealing to a target audience. Implicit forgiveness for the paranoia and self-serving need to preserve white privilege. For example, people can live in neighborhoods with racist bylaws; but that doesn't mean they actively support them or that they would have actively supported their passing. For me, silence is tacit acceptance (the whole "I'm not racist, but I'm ok with racist policies on the books that don't affect me or my family"). If you see something, say something! Another questionable quote:

"Neither you’re-on-your-own conservative indifference nor ill-conceived multiculturalism, “sensitivity,” and asymmetrical concessions help our integration ordeal."

At no point in the book does Benjamin discuss multiculturalism, "sensitivity and asymmetrical concessions". It isn't what the book is about. This book showcases "white" asymmetry and in my view demonstrates no sensitivity towards multiculturalism within the communities explored in the book. In short, he hasn't supported this statement. Smacks of both-siderism.

In the end, I really liked this book. It was written as social commentary, but reading it 10 years later turns it into a bit of history. Benjamin's accounts are by no means scientific or realistically representative of anything. It is a snapshot of time across communities where he interacted with the most willingly vocal. The true believers. In some cases, I can imagine some of his interviewees thinking their commentary was ill advised. But maybe not. They appeared to be honest accounts and in my experience people don't change much. In other words, I can imagine that most of the people in the book would be Trump supporters…especially the anti-immigration Utah bunch. Most of these people also think they are good people and of good character. In my world they are horrible people. It's an interesting dichotomy. Benjamin works hard to be as unbiased as he can be (he is a dark-skinned black man in the middle of wealthy, white enclaves in the rock bed of conservatism). He doesn't have any illusions, but I did get the impression that overall, he liked many of the people he talked with (as long as they stayed away from the subject of race). For me this was a worthwhile journey.

4 Stars

I have a hardcover edition but read a kindle copy from library.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. The author refused to focus on personal racism as the problem in America today, and really insisted on looking at structural racism instead, while still spending a lot of time describing people and personalities.

A couple of things that didn't sit right with me: First, I really got a kick out of the author's laidback, open-minded personality and ability to connect with people in all sorts of venues, from a white separatist retreat (did I mention he is African American?) to a working class poker club, to multi-million-dollar homes in Utah. But I felt there was not quite enough analysis of the personal racism he encountered, and how this interplays with the structural racism. For example, he tells an anecdote about a woman who made a racial comment (about why a person of color wasn't accepted to a co-op), and the way she told it was so funny that he laughed with her. I liked his honesty about this. But then I kind of wanted him to follow up with the complexity of the situation. It was funny in the moment, but didn't it also bother him? How did he view her comment in terms of the structural forces that keep housing segregated?

My other issue is related, but more stylistic. The "flow" of the book felt disjointed at times. There was a kind of disconnect between the author's (sometimes overly detailed) descriptions of the people, places, and houses he encountered... and the descriptions of structural forces. I want something to link them together, and it felt this was missing. Also, there were some times the descriptions were too much. Like the golf details. Or the "murder mystery" game at the church youth group. Interesting for a short time, but didn't sustain my attention, in part because these things seemed to be kind of on the margins of the book's topic, and the author didn't work too hard to make the connections.

As a side note, I wanted to hear more about his weekend with the white separatists! I mean, seriously? An African American man hangs out with white separatists for a weekend, and it only gets eight pages in his book? OK, I know focusing on extreme racists is a red herring, and we need to look at covert and implicit racism. But still! I want to know!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for Whitopia is, as you could probably guess from the title, a book about race. To be specific, the author, Rich Benjamin, visited three different extremely white communities for three months each, to interview the people living there and get a sense of the place. Oh, and he's black.

There are essentially two main "themes" that run through this book. One is Benjamin relating his experience in the "Whitopias." He relates details of the people he met, while also delving into the history and geography. What I like the most of this theme is the obvious empathy Benjamin has for the people he meets. While he holds an extremely obvious disdain for the places where they live--and he explicitly lays out his issues with homogenous communities at the end--he has an equally obvious fondness for the people themselves. He doesn't demonize them; to the contrary, he makes you like them as much as he does. At one point, he even goes to a weekend retreat for white separatists (who emphasize, with arguable plausibility, that they don't hate black people, they just like white people), and the people there are almost uniformly kind and polite.

The second theme is Benjamin talking about America's diversifying population, its consequences, and how it relates to the Whitopia phenomenon. The main value of this section lies in its trying to move on the simplistic individualistic analysis of racism. As a key passage in the book states:

Interpersonal racism exists between people. Institutional racism exists within institutions. Structural racism exists across institutions, public policy, and other important domains (education, the judiciary, real estate, etc.).

The issue with Whitopians is not that most of the people who live there are racist (although many of them are)--indeed, the main point of this book is that most Whitopians are actually extremely nice, polite, and ultimately fairly ordinary, even the ones Benjamin shares substantial political disagreement with. Rather, the priorities of the culture combine with governmental policy to make a segregated nation a reality--and in America, when you separate the races they are not treated equally. Benjamin ends the book with a listing of how Whitopias hurt everyone, the people living there and the society at large, and calls on us to rebuild the public sphere and work to integrate our presently Balkanized country.

Overall, I think this is an excellent book. It was very well-written and the topics it discusses are interesting and important. It certainly has its weaknesses--golf probably did not deserve its own chapter, and while I understand it's a mass-market book Benjamin did not go into enough detail about his political philosophy espoused at the end as I would have liked him to (what was in there was extremely interesting, but I want more!). He likely could've done a better job linking its chapters together into one coherent narrative. Still, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind and an interest in the topic.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bend, OR - you've been called out. Coeur d'Alene, ID - called out. Structural & institutional racism + if there's no one to be racist against / toward, you can't be racist, right? Preaching to the choir, I suspect, for the bulk of his readers but still: Benjamin does a nice job of presenting people as, well, people. He doesn't indemnify or villainize individuals, but rather bits of group think. We've all got family members that want to live in a Whitopia; were it not for their lacking diversity and limited (read: conservative) social norms and politics, I'd love living in most of the places he studies here. Anyways. Final verdict: well-written, but not at all ground-breaking, especially if your eyes are open.

[3 stars for strong writing and empathy / good humor?]

[Gretchen Rubin]

A fascinating look at demographic change, real estate, and racial attitudes in the United States.

[Shellie (Layers of Thought) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually 4.5 stars

Mini Synopsis:

By the year 2042 white people will be a minority in the United States. With this in mind, Rich Benjamin takes a trip around the country where he explores the areas of the US where the majority of the population, curiously, is not a blend of color. He then strives to define these enclaves, which he terms “Whitopias”. They are popping up in spots all over the country for reasons which he questions in his book. As he does his personal research in this sort of “reverse ethnography”, he boldly goes into the territory to interview, live with, and experience the life style which defines these areas and the population.

My Thoughts:

Rich Benjamin is a very intelligent, highly educated, and extremely articulate individual. His writing is lyrical, satirically humorous and sensitive, and he has a very advanced fashion sense which adds some levity to the book. He is thorough and backs up his findings with statistics and references - be aware this book is somewhat academic in nature. But most significantly he’s brave, and goes into areas which for me as a white person would even be scary; areas where there are known connections with extremists who may threaten violence to people of color and/or their supporters.

He is welcomed warmly within these “white enclaves”, and what he finds is interesting, enlightening, and often quite difficult to swallow. It was for me. Although Benjamin specifically states that as a culture we have moved mostly beyond blatant personal racial discrimination, racism still exists within most static bureaucratic structures within the country. He also supports the adage that classism and racism are intimate partners. Knowing that both also exist among these “Whitopias” he further supports their link within the text.

This is a great book. My only negative thoughts around it is that it is so information packed it will probably not be a quick or easy read for most. It wasn’t for me. More importantly the subject matter is emotional and difficult, and one which many people do not want to deal with. Although the author does a brilliant job of attempting to making light of some situations, how can it be? Sadly, and most significantly, I also do not believe it will actually reach his intended audience. Considering myself for example, although white, to me I believe he is “preaching to the choir” - albeit I am the white kid in the back, who doesn’t quite know the words, and whom annoyingly sings a bit off key, but I certainly won’t stop singing. I give this excellent yet difficult book 4.5 stars.

[Jim Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has been getting a lot of attention lately, at least in the PBS/NPR world many of us inhabit. Remembering the March, and the Freedom Riders, and the dogs in Birmingham gave reading this book now a sharper edge. Rich Benjamin is an African American journalist with a Ph.D. from Stanford and a sociological bent. His project is to explore those communities that have shown the largest proportional increase in their white population over the last several years. In three of these—St. George, Utah, Cour D’Alene, Idaho, and Fairfax County, Georgia—Benjamin spent three months each interviewing community leaders, attending churches, hanging out at Rotary Club meetings and high school football games, shopping at the mall, eating at local restaurants and most important, playing golf with the locals. The prose is jaunty; the incidents he describes are funny when they’re not appalling, and his conclusions—that integration is moving swiftly backward, at least for well-off White Americans—is unsettling. He meets a few out and out racists, but his major argument is that racism doesn’t actually need racists in order to thrive. It can be hard-wired into cultural assumptions and institutional arrangements that lead to racist outcomes without any use of the n-word. People move to white gated exurbs because they are “safer,” because the schools are “better,” because their property is more likely to hold its value. They join exclusive golf clubs because of the business-related networking that takes place there, and they drive expensive SUV’s because they are quite literally “built like tanks” when one has to make a foray beyond the gates out into the world where people are different from you. Benjamin is treated with a friendly courtesy almost everywhere he goes; he even finds golf partners everywhere he goes. He says that racist communities contain some of the nicest people he has ever met. The racism he encounters is not personal, it is structural. It is the reason that Treyvon Martin is dead, while his murderer is petitioning the state to pay his legal expenses. It is the reason young black men have a greater chance to be in jail than to be in college. It is the reason black workers make 75 cents for every dollar made by their white counterparts. The grainy television images of white people screaming and spitting in Birmingham, Jackson, and Montgomery 50 years ago are no longer something we have to watch in real time. That, of course, is a good thing. But Benjamin would argue that such change is mostly cosmetic. Racism has cleaned up its act, but it is still our national disease.

[Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once and again, a friend will mention some great new place they have discovered. Usually it is on a beautiful beach, near gorgeous mountains or on some amazing fishing river. Out here in Oregon, Bandon is getting as hot as the overheated Bend. Back east, Florida panhandle developments like Seaside in Florida keep getting hotter. After you note the great places to eat, the natural beauty, and the nicely ordered streets, you will note the people. They will be quite open and friendly and, almost to a person, white. Rich Benjamin, who is black, explores these places in his book Searching for Whitopia.

Benjamin argues that wittingly or unwittingly, whitopias are created by fears of immigrants and terrorists and a desire to create comfortable, expensive playground cities. These places are too expensive for most minorities, and even for poor or middle class whites. They allow for like minded people to segregate themselves. Fans of books like the Big Sort will enjoy this aspect of the book.

Race is a touchy subject in America (to be fair, where isn't it a touchy subject?) but I think Benjamin handles it exceedingly well. He is not interested in attacking people, only problems. He genuinely likes the people he meets in these white enclaves. He has few if any personal beefs with them. Instead he wants the government to look at the policies that encourage the development of segregation. A tall order and one that requires resetting the national conversation.

The United States needs a new approach to race, Benjamin argues. For one, people, including whites, need to be able to express all their concerns and needs, without fear of being labeled racist. Equally problematic though is the adoption of identity politics based entitlements thinking by many whites.

The book reminds me of those of Robert D Kaplan, if generally cheerier than his books. The combination of travelogue and policy analysis makes for a engaging way to deal with this topic.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, let me say I don't think there's anything worth reading in this book. What struck me the hardest was that this guy is a member of a think tank. You know, those people that are supposedly the brainiest of the brainiest? This book was no brains. This book was about 300 pages of fluff and should have been a 3 page magazine article. About 100 pages were about real estate that he couldn't afford, another 100 pages about him cooking for and eating with white people, and the other 100 pages was about his virtues as a color-blind, enlightened person. Throughout the entire book, it was if underneath all his writing, he was screaming, Like me! Like me! And I hate authors like that. If you're good, I'll love you. Don't throw yourself at me.

The worst part of it was that the author kept stressing that everyone in Whitopia is color blind and treated him SO nicely because they loved him. Yeah, okay. And he refused to shake your hand because he had a cold, Rich. Yeah, let's go with that.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting subject and the writing is very engaging, but it's written to be as inoffensive as possible (much like the author describes himself) and that attitude of "oh, these people were perfectly pleasant to me, an upperclass black man with typically upperclass interests like golf and real estate, so they're not really that racist" was annoying.

I probably would have given this a 3.5 if there were half-stars on GR, but when pressed to choose between a three and a four, three seems more right, especially since the last couple chapters, where he says stuff like "sure institutional racism plays a role, but really aren't poor black Americans just as much to blame for their situation due to a culture of bad choices?" and "white people can hardly be blamed for feeling discriminated against due to affirmative action and ~identity politics~" left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Searching for Whitopia by Rich Benjamin is not about the interactions between blacks and whites. It is about the phenomenon of white flight. White Flight occurs when white people move out of a neighborhood because people of color are moving in. What Rich Benjamin did was move into predominately white neighborhoods (97% white) to see what it's like.
Read the rest of my review here

[Sanjay Varma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I glanced at a few chapters of this book. I think the author's point is very superficial. He points out that the regional migration of white people to rural states, with an already high percentage of white people, is analogous to the "white flight" that has taken place in cities.

The author’s method is to move to a state like Utah or Idaho, embed deeply into the community, and interview many random citizens. The author quotes them as saying that they found that the cultural diversity of places like California brings a constant tension. By moving to a rural area they feel more relaxed. The author merely points this out, but he doesn't condemn the behavior.

I wish the author pointed out a larger context. Namely that all of human history has been about the opposite trend, i.e. people moving from homogenous rural areas into diverse urban areas. This suggests that people aren’t suddenly fleeing diversity.

By naming his book "Whitopia" the author characterizes this trend in a way that emphasizes race. Could he have called the book "Ruraltopia"? I can't help but recall the mass migration of people to the "sun belt" for many decades. Maybe they weren't chasing the sun after all, maybe they were chasing a lower population density and jobs? Now that the sun belt has filled up, maybe they are chasing the extreme sports of rock climbing, skiing, and hiking, by moving to Utah, Idaho, and Portland?

Frankly, this trend has been apparent in places like Jackson for decades. The disturbing cause is wealth concentration, not race. The trend has also been apparent in places like Sedona. The cause is spiritual seeking of isolation and communion with nature.

I wonder why black were willing to move to the sun belt, but are reluctant to move to Utah, Wyoming and Idaho? Could it be that they don't like cold weather? Are not interested in skiing or hiking? Or could it be that they don't have IT jobs that let them telecommute? Why don’t blacks eagerly move to Sedona? Perhaps they are too cynical to embrace naive new age religions? Perhaps black people only lag these trends?

In any case, I give the author credit for not pushing his hypothesis too far. This is really a blog post masquerading as a whole book. The author explores his premise but he never hits the reader over the head with it.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tour of white flight in the 2000s. Couldn't help but look for signs of the book that this would have been if it were written anytime within the last 6 years or so (instead of in 2008 or 2009). Would he be harder on the racist white whitopians he met? Would the racist whitopians have been even more overtly racist? It might have been interesting to see how the Tea Party interacted with whitopia, but alas, they were lurking just a little way into the future. Where would Black Lives Matter have fit into the chapter about whitopia's urban "implied opposites"? Some of his ideas have aged well, and some seem a little outdated. For instance, Benjamin's disapproval of identity politics would probably get some (I think deserved) pushback today, but his characterization of White identity politics as the most mainstream and central of all identity politics remains relevant.

[Audacia Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was published in 2009 and I don’t think it’s aged very well. The tone is of breezy curiosity about majority white rural towns and cities, with a non-urgent exploration of anti-immigrant and white supremacist sentiments - both overt and implicit - of the residents. Some of the class and race analysis is interesting, but reading from a 2020 vantage point made it hard to enjoy. It also has the baked in ideas of de facto segregation that actually don’t bear out in history (its de jure - read the stunning The Color of Law). The underlying assumption of the book is that whites will be a minority in the US by the mid-20th century, and that some folks are grumpy about it but there’s a progression toward a more liberal and diverse future - that feels much less assured now.

[Richard]

Published back in the neolithic era, but this article in the New Yorker sparked my curiosity: What it was liked being a left-wing pundit on “The O’Reilly Factor”. .

[Susan D'Entremont · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was different than I thought it would be from reading the review and jacket, but I still loved it. I thought it would be more humorous or more in-depth/academic. It wasn't funny, but it was very kind and gentle. Most books I read on topics like this sound angry and judgmental. Mr. Benjamin, the author of this book, seemed to genuinely like the people he encountered in "Whitopia," which, I think, will make people who read his book take his criticisms of the policies and ideas that have created these Whitopias more seriously.

The book focuses on a few very specific communities that have had bigger than average population growth and whose population growth has been overwhelmingly white. These communities are getting whiter (and usually richer) while the overall country is becoming less white.

The first community Benjamin outlines for us is St. George, Utah, a booming resort community. It is a sign of Benjamin's genius that at the beginning he made me want to live there - even though I'm a knee-jerk East Coast white liberal who sends her kids to majority non-white schools. And I hate golf. The readers get to know the residents as real people, not as sheltered snobs who live in gated communities even though the area has very low crime.

Benjamin slowly brings us around to a discussion of why this extreme segregation is bad for the country as a whole and what we might do about it. He does this without vilifying the people who live there or making them seem stupid. He also talks a bit about how policies actually encourage these sort of segregated communities. I wish there was more of this sort of discussion in the book, but since this was meant as a popular read, maybe he will do something like that through his think tank.

A couple of quotes from the book really stood out for me and spoke to my personal experiences. In Chapter 6 he says, "So, instead of asking Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? let us resolve to ask, Why did Latinos and blacks, with comparable incomes and credit histories to whites, receive a disproportionate share of predatory sub-prime loans leading to the home foreclosure crisis?" So much of our response to race is emotional, but the real problems - the ones that affect peoples' education and livelihoods - are practical, and we need to recognize that and act on it.

In the conclusion, Benjamin writes "The harm is that it's (homogeneity) leading Americans to accept in a de facto way ethnic and class Balkanization as a semipermanent feature of American life. Whitopia imperils a collective commitment to the common good." He then spells out why this harms everyone - from Exurban Whitopians to Low-Income Minorities. We are in danger of becoming so separate that we will have several isolated cultures in the country that fragments us rather than working for things that help everyone.

Finally, I am jealous of Rich Benjamin. He must be quite a charmer. In a few short months he got invited to golf outings, dinner parties, cookouts and all sorts of events in people's homes. He, a black New Yorker, even had people chatting him up at lunch at a White Power church (not to be confused with white supremacists)in Idaho. I wish I had his social skills!

[Ellen Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich Benjamin writes about his travels through White America. During his travels, he pretends to be interested in purchasing a home in three of the whitest areas in America. He lives in these areas and gets to know the people who live there and their opinions and ideas.

The areas he visits include a gated community in Utah, a separatist retreat in Northern Idaho and an exclusive area north of Atlanta, Georgia. All are white dominant areas that are growing more white despite the tendency toward growth of minority populations in suburbs and cities.

The author has a wonderful personality that comes through in the book. That’s probably part of why he’s so easily accepted in all three of these areas. He seems equally at ease at a formal dinner in a gated community and a poker game with the boys. He rubs elbows with politicians and the homeless and all seem to accept with openly.

While this book is necessarily about race relations, Rich also touches on the topics of politics, immigration and neighborhood values. Rich predicts that by 2042, America will no longer be a white majority country. He touches on how the influx of immigrants is changing the political make up of the country. Immigrants tend to vote for the Democratic party due to its liberal welfare benefit policies.

He takes the racism that he sees in stride. He makes no comment about the black ‘sambo’ statue in the backyard of a gated community. He sits side by side in church with white supremacists and white separatists. He writes about the racist remarks he hears without bitterness or anger.

Many of the people he interviewed spoke of moving to these Whitopias because they were searching for a safer place to live or a community more like the typical 1950s neighborhood. They were looking for a return of more traditional values not necessarily a “white” neighborhood. The book showed droves of rich white people leaving cities to move to what he called “exurbs”. It also showed the anger of the original residents of the town when their town was suddenly filled with rich outsiders.

I found this to be a very interesting read. Coming from rural Vermont, I am in a very white state and a very white town. We have a large number of rich people who move here looking for something they can’t find in the cities they previously lived in. This book provided a brand new insight into why people are leaving the cities and what they are looking for when they relocate. I think that there’s so much more to this issue than race and I highly recommend you read it and make your own decision.

[Barbd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness the author had the patience anfd compassion to go on this anthropological expedition into whitopia. How else would those who live in less manufactured, more reality-based environments be able to understand this growing area of the population? I just read Benjamin's op-ed in NYT about the fearful, bunker mentality in gated-communities and how it leads to tragedies like the Trayvon Martin shooting. My response to reading the book was to feel sad for people who voluntarily chose to live in a sterile, dull environment and who closed themselves off from empathy & interaction with the rest of the glorious human experience. Now, I see the consequences of whitopia thinking go beyond the attenuated existence of the residents - their fear has become an existential threat to non-residents.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up knowing that it would challenge me...and it did. Funny and entertaining, this though provoking work is something that anyone living in the suburbs or exurbs should read.

I didn't agree with everything here, but it opened my eyes to some new ways of looking at racism and poverty. The book focuses on systematic (unintentional) racism while showing that it's different than personal (intentional) racism. Benjamin shows that personal racism was bascally absent from rich whitopia, but that the very core of living is based off of (and often made possible by) this larger systematic racism (government policies, systems, etc).

A great read if you want to learn more about the world around us. A horrible one if you prefer to remain ignorant and biased.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, an African American man, spends some time living in some of the whitest areas in America. Descriptions of individual people he meets, dinner parties he hosts, etc. are mostly generous, even-handed, and sometimes interesting. Analyses of and lamentations about the overall phenomenon of white flight are mostly predictable and familiar if you've followed this issue at all in recent decades.

He went to Churchill HS and grew up in Potomac, and his description of getting lost trying to find an exurb in northern Virginia was funny to me as a fellow montgomery county, MD native, though his attempt to generalize it as nobody really having a sense of place anymore seemed like overkill.

[Veleda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel a little bad about giving this book two stars. It's more like a 2.5, and I was tempted to be generous and give it three. But while the writing is clear and entertaining, Searching for Whitopia suffers from lack of analysis and follow through. Benjamin touches on some really intriguing ideas, but then lets them go or glosses over them. Some of of his topics deserved much more lengthy and in-depth examination. I confess, I was hoping for something more hard hitting.

[SC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am now really, really sad after reading this book, and it was totally the wrong thing to read on my Sick Day.

Whitewashed racism is bad enough, but coupled with urban sprawl, which makes me even sadder, was just too much sadness; I haz a VERY BIG SAD right now.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I fled the nascent Whitopia of my childhood back in 1984 and, although I knew absolutely nothing else about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I was firmly convinced that I did not want to spend another minute of it living in a plastic bubble with clueless white people. I know that sounds harsh. But Whitopia was a place filled with lawn jockeys and trickle down snake oil and paranoid snobs. It would be a therapy exercise for me to write a book about Whitopia. But you have come here to read a review of another book. A book written by a guy who has more class and restraint than this snark-addicted curmudgeon.

Poor Rich Benjamin. Well educated, cosmopolitan, diplomatic, and black. Almost none of those traits are a good fit for the gated off golf course communities he makes his temporary homes through the course of his research. Benjamin is a 21st century man of varied background who views himself as a citizen of the world rather than as the heir of any particular geographic location. He has lived in several US metropolitan areas and has travelled extensively. His narrative betrays a fondness for aesthetics and he has a keen eye for design detail, whether he is describing an ostentatious Whitopian home or the contours of a world class golf course. Some reviewers have suggested that Benjamin gets a bit derailed with these descriptions, but I see him as a people watcher and a keen observer of his environment. The reader can also infer that Benjamin enjoys entertaining. He is quick to make friends in most of the Whitopian communities he visits. I respect the hell out of him for giving some of these folks the benefit of the doubt and extending the hand of friendship. In some cases, such as his visit to a White Separatist compound/church in Idaho, I find it downright amazing.

Some of what we learn from the book underscores my own beef with the Whitopian environment. In one of the first communities Benjamin infiltrates (disguised as a potential home buyer) --he and his realtor (who by coincidence also happens to be black) go to view a show piece home out in the Utah desert. It is an amazing pile really. 7000 square feet of Whitopian grandeur and complete with a "Sambo" lawn ornament. Only in Whitopia would you find a home straight out of Dwell magazine that is then trashed with a racist ornament in prominent view on the lawn. Only in Whitopia would the owners leave Sambo out there to greet potential buyers. It would never occur to a Whitopian that some of the people scoping high end real estate might be put off by the shuck and jive act? In 2012? -- I still recall my dad's reaction to the neighbor's lawn jockey in 1972. Incredulity at the tacky affront to both taste and black people. We were supposed to have moved on 40 years ago. I think, in many ways, we have. But creepy racist views persist in the wealthiest white burbs.

One Old Dear offers tea and hospitality and grandmotherly charm to the author as he interviews her. She pats him maternally (?) on the hand and says: "We just think everyone is happier if they stick to their own kind. Aren't you happier with your own kind, Rich?"

(And if, by that, she means: "happier living my life away from rummy golf addled putzes who miss Jim Crow"? Well yeah. I am definitely better off with 'my own' over here in the Inner Ring. But I digress and I promised not to.)

Another thing Benjamin notices and points out is the cheery surface friendliness of Whitopia. He is embraced by his new neighbors and invited along to parties and church socials and the constant round of golf that rich white guys play. It's all: "We're real Americans! And we are friendly good people! Who aren't lazy! We earned the good life. And you can too!" Oh they all moved out of their old communities (most often located in California) to be around other 'like minded' people who were all friendly and rich just like them.

And that is just fine. Except for the fact that they impose their own Fantasy Island life experience on the rest of us (black, tan, and the kind of white who has less green) through their exponential influence on our society. Whitopians are still, for the most part, running the show vis-a-vis local business networks, political influence and payola and real estate development (or lack). It is a cruel hoax that Upper Middle Class America is portrayed as 'just plain folks' -- an attainable dream for anyone who 'works hard', 'goes to school', and 'stays on the straight and narrow'.

Meanwhile, like everything else, the slope to Whitopia (for those who still desire to get there) has become steeper. The demise of multi-function housing in varied price points is an updated feature on Whitopia 2.0. When I was a kid and we fled the inner ring suburbs to the county line, people like my parents could still afford the smaller Whitopian houses on the older/crappier streets. Thus, teachers and social workers and even a few butchers and bakers and candlestick makers could rub elbows with the attorneys and doctors and business owners. These days the Whitopian new builds are almost exclusively high end. Red Lining and other overt racial barriers have given way to simple economics. If you have to ask, darling...you can't afford to live here. The communities Benjamin visits cater exclusively to the upper middle class and have priced earlier (pre-boom) residents right out of the neighborhood.

Even if I wanted to live in the town I grew up in...I could never afford to go back.

Meanwhile, the rest of America gets poorer and less white. Visiting the people in this book made me sad and just a bit nervous. It reads like a seige on a Medieval castle. The last of the lords and ladies are pulling up the portcullis and getting ready to fling cauldrons of hot oil over the moat as the serfs mass just beyond the gates. Because these wealthy white fellow citizens are freaked out and scared and in defensive posture. They live in gated communities in the middle of nowhere with private security and a stock pile of guns in the basement. Everyone within miles is rich as Midas...but still they fear the rest of us. They just want to 'stick to their kind', play their golf, polish up Sambo out in the front yard and attend their home owner association meetings in peace.

Rich Benjamin probably resembles the Future American much more accurately than the people we meet in Whitopia. The world is mixing more. Distance means less. People are rootless, constantly in search of work and on the move. One gets the feeling that Whitopians cannot shut themselves off from the rest of society forever. And when they meet Rich and socialise with him, they even find that they genuinely like him! Maybe, being forced to deal with Other People would be the very best thing to happen to the Bubble Dwellers. In the meantime, their gilded cages provide an intriguing look at how the top percentile people live and view the world.

[Michael Andersen-Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the aftermath of the election, I find myself scrambling to understand just who are these white Americans who so overwhelmingly voted for Trump. "Searching for Whitopia" was written early in Obama's second term, but it presciently describes just the type of whites who supported Trump in 2016. This book focuses on middle and upper-middle class whites who live in predominantly white exurbs, and who self-segregate into areas that are characterized by strict zoning and gated communities. The author, who defines himself as a "non-threatening black", does an excellent job in portraying the individuals he encounters in various "Whitopias" fairly, without resorting to white trash stereotyping. As a bi-coastal, ultra-urban, inner-city, gay atheist leftist, I have zero contact with the kind of conservative white Republicans described in this book. Their views, lifestyles and beliefs all seem to be motivated by one big underlying emotion: Fear. While I find virtually everything about these white Americans and the "Whitopias" they live in to be depressing, oppressive, selfish and dull, it is important that those of us who live in "blue state bubbles" (and I've lived all my life in the three biggest bubbles, Manhattan, Hollywood and San Francisco) to understand the mindset of these Americans who have upended our democracy and threaten our civil liberties.

[Sandy D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking book on white flight, re-segregation, real estate, race, and politics, though reading this in November 2016 was more than a little depressing. The book was published in 2009, in the early years of Obama's presidency - but it was more than a little prescient when it came to population trends and politics.

I really enjoyed the mix of research (historical and then-current, about 2007-2009) and anecdote on "white utopias", and Benjamin - an African-American scholar - writes gracefully about the mostly very nice people he met, ate with, and golfed with in predominately white communities in Utah, Idaho, New York, Michigan, and Georgia. I would have given it five stars, but the narrative seemed a little disjointed, and sometimes a little dry (though to be fair, golf, economics, and statistics are going to be dry for me no matter how well you write).

Highly recommended if you're interested in why people pick certain areas to their raise children, leave behind, or retire to.

[Kirsten Hawkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read. African American journalist Rich Benjamin spent two years traveling and living in the whitest, fastest growing counties in the US trying to figure out what makes white communities tick. Benjamin is a great raconteur - he befriends everyone - retired teachers, poker players, fisherman, cops, and even spends a few days at a white separatist church camp. Benjamin doesn't judge the people he meets but tries to understand them. Benjamin's quest is driven by his sense of urgency over rising residential segregation in the US coupled with the US's impending majority minority demographic shift. Benjamin does not hate white people and actually experiences very little personal racism. But what he explores with both depth and subtlety is the problem of structural racism, how that drives what he sees as areas of abundance versus areas of abandonment, and how it fuels American electoral politics. The book was written in 2010 but it is even more relevant in Trump's America. Highly recommended.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know when you're sitting in a group of people and someone says something cringeworthy, and you and someone else look at each other and roll your eyes together and don't say anything? A lot of this book felt like that. I wanted to read this one because one of the cities that he used as a case study is the city that I currently live in. Well, technically I live in the city next door, but close enough. It's interesting to see it from someone else's perspective.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with his conclusions. There was some "both sides are right" arguments made at the end which made me think of Fiddler on the Roof, "He's right, and he's right. They can't both be right!"

Benjamin was fun to hang out with for a while, though. I enjoyed reading his perspectives.

[Lauren Thornberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Actually a 4.7 but... let's give it 5 stars)

This book was an engaging mix of narrative and facts, detailing "whitopias" - mostly-white areas experiencing growth (the newcomers are also white). Benjamin gives in-depth explanations of the various types of whitopias, and treats some of the more... insensitive... residents with a level of respect I couldn't manage. Full of facts and interesting interviews, the book truly takes you on a journey. I can only imagine Benjamin could write a whole new version of this book since Trump's ascent to power 7 years after publication. Only complaint is that his call for readers to empathize with residents of whitopias lessens the severity of this trend towards resegregation.

[NormaCenva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating is 3,5 Stars

This book is a difficult one to rate accurately. A lot of things happened since it's first publication in 2009. It is still informative, hull of well-done humor and on point on many issues. The author has done a good job structuring the material and making it accessible to people of different opinions and views. I would say that it is best not to skim through this book, as many very important statements are just in between the paragraphs. It is better to pay attention it will definitely pay of!