In 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, the element of ethnic bias, which had been lying beneath the social surface, suddenly reared its head. A shock wave was felt throughout the bigoted European American landscape that signaled a dramatic change in the social structure of America. An African American had been elected president of the United States! Since the founding fathers set the system of white supremacy and black inferiority in motion, the notion of an African American becoming president was the last expectation of those who felt a sense of loss from the event. Progress in becoming first-class citizens for African Americans has been like riding a hand-cranked elevator that stopped on each floor of a thirteen-story building. The primary stumbling block confronting African Americans has been called racism or the system of white supremacy and black inferiority. The one lesson America needs to learn is, racism cannot be defeated. This book examines the history of the system from the founding fathers to the twenty-first century with emphasis on how and why the system will disappear.

In 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, the element of ethnic bias, which had been lying beneath the social surface, suddenly reared its head. A shock was felt throughout the bigoted European American landscape that signaled a dramatic change in the social structure of America. An African American had been elected president of the United States! Since the founding fathers set the system of white supremacy and black inferiority in motion, the notion of an African American becoming president was the last expectation of those who felt a sense of loss from the event. Progress in becoming first-class citizens for African Americans has been like riding a hand-cranked elevator that stopped on each floor of a thirteen-story building. The primary stumbling block confronting African Americans has been called racism or the system of white supremacy and black inferiority. The one lesson America needs to learn is, racism cannot be defeated. This book examines the history of the system from the founding fathers to the twenty-first century with emphasis on how and why the system will disappear.

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

The one constant in our world has always been change. We recognize many of the changes from global climate to the size of soda cans accept them as part of the process. One change that has become more apparent now than in the past is the area of demography. One of the results in conjunction with these demographic changes is the deconstruction of the concept of race. Although they will not admit it, some people do not like to talk about race and racism, primarily because they know little about it. So, rather than show their ignorance on the topic, they avoid the subject as much as possible. Unfortunately, change continues to occur and whether we want to on not, America will have to deal with the changing demographic atmospherethe browning effect. This book, developed over a number of years, helps the reader to understand race and racism in America.

Racist America is a bold, thoughtful exploration of the ubiquity of race in contemporary life. It develops an antiracist theory rooted not only in the latest empirical data but also in the current reality of racism in the U.S.

In this book, Feagin develops a theory of systemic racism to interpret the highly racialized character and development of this society. Exploring the distinctive social worlds that have been created by racial oppression over nearly four centuries and what this has meant for the people of the United States, focusing his analysis on white-on-black oppression. Drawing on the commentaries of black and white Americans in three historical eras; the slavery era, the legal segregation era, and then those of white Americans. Feagin examines how major institutions have been thoroughly pervaded by racial stereotypes, ideas, images, emotions, and practices. He theorizes that this system of racial oppression was not an accident of history, but was created intentionally by white Americans. While significant changes have occurred in this racist system over the centuries, key and fundamentally elements have been reproduced over nearly four centuries, and US institutions today imbed the racialized hierarchy created in the 17th century. Today, as in the past, racial oppression is not just a surface-level feature of society, but rather it pervades, permeates, and interconnects all major social groups, networks, and institutions across society.