European University Institute Library

Good white people, the problem with middle-class white anti-racism, Shannon Sullivan

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-203) and index

index present

non fiction

Good white people

electronic resource

bibliographydictionaries

1306580496

Shannon Sullivan

ACLS Humanities E-Book

the problem with middle-class white anti-racism

Building on her book Revealing Whiteness, Shannon Sullivan identifies a constellation of attitudes common among well-meaning white liberals that she sums up as "white middle-class goodness," an orientation she critiques for being more concerned with establishing anti-racist bona fides than with confronting systematic racism and privilege. Sullivan untangles the complex relationships between class and race in contemporary white identity and outlines four ways this orientation is expressed, each serving to establish one's lack of racism: the denigration of lower-class white people as responsible for ongoing white racism, the demonization of antebellum slaveholders, an emphasis on colorblindness--especially in the context of white childrearing--and the cultivation of attitudes of white guilt, shame, and betrayal. To move beyond these distancing strategies, Sullivan argues, white people need a new ethos that acknowledges and transforms their whiteness in the pursuit of racial justice rather than seeking a self-righteous distance from it--Publisher description--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: Good white liberals -- Dumping on white trash : etiquette, abjection, and radical inclusion -- Demonizing white ancestors : unconscious histories and racial responsibilities -- The dis-ease of colorblindness : racial absences and invisibilities in the reproduction of whiteness -- The dangers of white guilt, shame, and betrayal : toward white self-love -- Conclusion: Struggles over love