Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past
This work is a valued contribution to the critical study of whiteness relative to race relations in the U.S. Roediger suggests a vision of a nonwhite society in contrast to the current perception of America as a white nation. His critique on color blindness and the preindicted O. J. Simpson has an ironic twist, since Simpson was vaunted as the ideal type of "race-consciousless black." Roediger examines the phenomenon of whiteness as a status in America, and the fact that white ethnics today perceive their status to have always been unquestionably white. Real division among whites, even its own definition, is fluid, requiring that white supremacy be viewed as a constant pursuit rather than a fixed status. Roediger, a history professor, uses historical analyses of the American labor force, immigration patterns, and popular culture to reflect on race as a matter of culture and politics. He argues clearly that, as such, political struggles will be necessary for transformation of racial inequity as it relates to social and economic status.Vernon FordCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved