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Introduction
Contents
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Cover picture
Author bio

Lifting the White Veil

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

vi

Chapter 1. White people - What do we want?

A strange logic * What do we want? * Reality and myth * Pop quiz * Walking the tightrope * Not all white people are the same

1

Chapter 2. What will it take to create a multiracial society?

What is a multiracial society? * What do we have now? * Monoracial and multiracial structures * Looking at some numbers * Interracial marriage - An example * What about other areas of our society? * What will it take to create a multiracial society? * What do white people need to do?

12

Chapter 3. Remedial education for white folk

Physical and social reality * Culture * Cultural membership(s) * Cultural practices * Purpose of culture * Cultural location and change * Race * Biological definitions * Social definitions * Comparing social and biological explanations * Race and culture * Race as a cultural formation * White American culture 

34

Chapter 4. Colorblindness, personified

From the margins to the center, historical development * As an idealized goal * As a legal theory * As a culturally-based set of beliefs * As a political theory * A big step * Will it bring us a multiracial society? * Radical colorblindness * Colorblindness - reconsidered * Mend it; don’t end it

53

Chapter 5. How did it all begin?

1607 - 1622: Forging a common identity * 1623 - 1669: English, indeed, but not yet white * 1670 - 1705: The birth of whiteness * 1706 - 1780: The (white) Rights of Men * 1781 - 1860: The birth of the white American character

73

Chapter 6. Looking at white American culture

Who owns a culture? * We can all be (white) Americans * Our culture, in the American context * The dominant subculture * Characteristics of contemporary white American culture * Everyday interaction * Believing is seeing (or not seeing) 

101

Chapter 7. Inside the white experience

White racial identity * Innocence and guilt * Shame, shame, shame * White pride * Two sides of the same coin (internalized oppression and internalized dominance)

122

Chapter 8. The academy awakens

Asking the right question * Laying the foundations * A structure deeper than words * Troubled visions among feminists * Representation of what? * Twenty years in the making * Putting whiteness on the map * Whiteness studies – a tourist’s view * Is it a good thing? * Coming soon to a university near you

150

Chapter 9. Grass roots, old, deep, and spreading

The first conference on whiteness * Government * Business * Church groups – spiritual approaches * The news media * Public interest groups * Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. * The public

175

Chapter 10. Moving toward a multiracial future

Why think about whiteness? * The problem of the 21st century * Access to power and resources * What are we for? * Another model * Relations between white culture and cultures of color * Comparison to other models * Let’s be clear on some things * Multiracial settings are the norm * Decentering whiteness * Where to begin

200

Appendix

221

Notes

225

Index


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