White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness - Softcover

Frankenberg, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816622582 ISBN 13: 9780816622580

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1993

Synopsis

Traditional debates concerning racially hierarchical societies have tended to focus on the experience of being black. White Women, Race Matters breaks with this tradition by focusing on the particular experiences of white women in a racially hierarchical society. By considering the ways in which their experience not only contributes to but challenges the reproduction of racism, the work offers a rigorous examination of existing methodologies, practices and assumptions concerning racism and gender relations. Supported by extracts from in-depth life history interviews, White Women, Race Matters provides valuable course material.

About this title

About the Author:

Ruth Frankenberg is Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness and editor of Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, published by Duke University Press.

From Publishers Weekly:

Through documenting the life histories of 30 white women, Frankenberg compellingly outlines the interplay of perception and reality in shaping the structures of racism. Rather than understanding whiteness as neutral and void of race, Frankenberg straightforwardly argues that whiteness and its accompanying privilege is crucial in structuring race relations. She proposes that the women she interviewed struggled to understand and to situate themselves within, or outside of, existing race relations and racial consciousness. For example, several subjects reported that as children, they never thought about race, while others, though raised in segregated and racist environments, found ways to challenge the status quo. Frankenberg explores our experiences and perceptions of race, sex and intimacy; she considers, for example, how white girls are taught to fear black men. This book is a valuable contribution to the study of the relationship of whiteness to race, and is a must for anyone concerned with issues of feminism and racism. Frankenberg is assistant professor of American studies at the University of California at Davis.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0816622582
• ISBN 13: 9780816622580
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304