These are the wages for whiteness. Learning to Be White 's great power lies in its combination of breathtaking intellectual sweep with telling details drawn from everyday life. Deeply informed by history, Thandeka's work brilliantly illuminates how white identity turns children against their better selves and workers against their own interests. No other study so fully demonstrates the origins of white identity in misery and defeat, as well as in power and privilege.
Shame is a powerful force in shaping identity.
This book is a powerful study of the creation of 'whiteness' out of the world of shame. There is both shock and relief. There may be anger and disbelief as well. But simplistic moral, psychological, and sociological explanations will no longer work. Just feeling guilty and trying to atone won't work either.