In The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. DuBois wrote that the question whites wanted to ask him was: "How does it feel to be a problem?" In The Heart of Whiteness, Robert Jensen writes that it is time for white people in America to self-consciously reverse the direction of that question and to fully acknowledge that in the racial arena, they are the problem.
While some whites would like to think that we have reached "the end of racism" in the United States, and others would like to celebrate diversity but are oblivious to the political, economic, and social consequences of a nation-and their sense of self-founded on a system of white supremacy, Jensen proposes a different approach. He sets his sights not only on the racism that can't be hidden, but also on the liberal platitudes that sometimes conceal the depths of that racism in "polite society."
The Heart of Whiteness offers an honest and rigorous exploration of what Jensen refers to as the depraved nature of whiteness in the United States. Mixing personal experience with data and theory, he faces down the difficult realities of -racism and white privilege. He argues that any system that denies non-whites their full humanity also keeps whites from fully accessing their own.
This book is both a cautionary tale for those who believe that they have transcended racism, and also an expression of the hope for genuine transcendence. When white people fully understand and accept the painful reality that they are indeed "the problem," it should lead toward serious attempts to change one's own life and join with others to change society.
Robert Jensen is the author of Citizens of the Empire. He is a professor of media ethics and journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.
When you remove genetics as a reason for differences.... in such things as overall intelligence and progression of a group of people based on race then you still are left with having to explain why there are differences. Taking genetics off the table as an explanation you then have to move to pseudoscience and make things up because genetics is the foundation of those gaps and differences. That's what this book does. It's a pseudoscience substitute for the real reason why there are gaps in such things as intelligence, abilities, and general state of advancement between the races. Why exactly would the human species (evolving over millions of years) be "equal" across the board? To assume this is ignorant.
Thought-provoking & well worth reading A quite good book. I found some of his terminology rather off-putting on first read ("white supremacy"), and his perspective is obvously colored by his upbringing in a very "white" area of the country. But the book is thought-provoking and well-worth reading and discussing with others, probably in small groups.
The truth hurts. Very well written observation from one who has experienced white privilege firsthand. For all the negative reviews, I would say that the truth hurts them to admit that everything he says in the book is accurate. Blacks have always known about white privilege.
I think the negative reviews are here because someone had the audacity to expose the fact that there IS white privilege. Always has been, always will be.
Very Good Exploration of Racism The author does a very good job of bringing to the attention of the reader one of the major sources of racism: white privilege. While it is understandably rejected by those who benefit from racist practices and beliefs, the book does provoke people (who are open about the issue) to reconsider their involvement in such privilege.
Questions for those who've read the book I acknowledge that I haven't read this (hence the neutral three stars). I just learned of Jensen's existence because of a public lecture he was giving titled "The Skin I'm In: On Privilege in America." Didn't have a chance to get and read the book before the lecture. Wasn't impressed with the lecture, so may not wind up reading it. Here are the questions that occur to me, none of which were covered in his talk --- so perhaps some reader(s) will respond to them:
If white privilege is such a benefit for white Americans, how do people in lily-white Iceland get along without it? Would they suddenly find their status improved and benefit psychologically if they imported, say, 200,000 Haitians? Would whites in the US suddenly go into depression if all non-whites disappeared, because they would suddenly no longer have white privilege?
How many non-whites does it take for white Americans to enjoy white privilege (WP)? As the country turns more and more non-white will whites enjoy more and more WP or are there diminishing returns?
Do majorities in all multi-racial societies enjoy privilege? In Japan, do the Japanese enjoy yellow privilege? If not, why not?
Why is it that Asians in the U.S. have higher incomes and lower incarceration rates than whites despite the fact that they don't enjoy WP?
If life is so awful for non-whites here, why do so many want to come?
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