Behind blue eyes: Whiteness and contemporary US racial politics

New Left Review

Volumn , Issue 225, 1997, Pages 89-104

  Winant, Howard ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0038879171     PISSN: 00286060     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Stanley B. Greenberg, Report on Democratic Defection, prepared for the Michigan House Democratic Campaign Committee, The Analysis Group, Washington, DC 1985, p. 70.
2. Charles Gallagher, 'White Reconstruction in the University', Socialist Review, vol. 94, nos. 1-2, 1995.
3. Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, New York 1994; Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons, Minneapolis 1994.
4. Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, New York 1994; Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons, Minneapolis 1994.
5. James Ridgeway, Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture, New York 1990; Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States, New York 1995; Michael Novick, White Lies, White Power: The Fight Against White Supremacy and Reactionary Violence, Monroe, ME 1995.
6. James Ridgeway, Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture, New York 1990; Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States, New York 1995; Michael Novick, White Lies, White Power: The Fight Against White Supremacy and Reactionary Violence, Monroe, ME 1995.
7. James Ridgeway, Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture, New York 1990; Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States, New York 1995; Michael Novick, White Lies, White Power: The Fight Against White Supremacy and Reactionary Violence, Monroe, ME 1995.
8. Ronald Walters, 'White Racial Nationalism in the United States', Without Prejudice, vol. 1, no. 1, 1987.
9. Thomas Byrne Edsall with Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics, New York 1992.
10. W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reaconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880, [1935] New York 1977.
11. C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel, Savannah, GA 1973.
12. In recent years, new right groups such as the Christian Coalition have mounted various initiatives to organize racially defined minorities. The Republican primary campaign for the 1996 Presidential nomination included a new right candidate, Alan Keyes, who is Afro-American, Numerous other examples could be cited.
13. Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton 1990; Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming, New York 1989.
14. Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton 1990; Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming, New York 1989.
15. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia [1787], in Merrill D. Peterson, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, New York 1984.
16. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, New York 1962.
17. Nathan Glazer, Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy, New York 1975.
18. Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980, New York 1984. p. 223; see also George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty, New York 1981; Thomas Sowell, The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective, New York 1983.
19. Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980, New York 1984. p. 223; see also George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty, New York 1981; Thomas Sowell, The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective, New York 1983.
20. Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980, New York 1984. p. 223; see also George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty, New York 1981; Thomas Sowell, The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective, New York 1983.
21. Walter Williams, The State Against Blacks, New York 1982.
22. Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan, Beyond the Melting Pot, Cambridge 1970; Stephen Steinberg, Turning Back: The Retreat From Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy, Boston 1995.
23. Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan, Beyond the Melting Pot, Cambridge 1970; Stephen Steinberg, Turning Back: The Retreat From Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy, Boston 1995.
24. Stephen Carter, Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, New York 1991; Glenn C. Loury, One by One From the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America, New York 1995.
25. Stephen Carter, Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, New York 1991; Glenn C. Loury, One by One From the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America, New York 1995.
26. Dana Y. Takagi, The Retreat From Race: Asian American Admissions and Racial Politics, New Brunswick, NJ 1992.
27. Dinesh D'Souza, The End of Racism, New York 1995.
28. US liberalism can be equated only partially with European social democracy; certainly its ties to the labour movement and to the Marxian, tradition are far more tenuous. There is no significant Marxian racial project in the contemporary us, if only because no viable Marxian politics of any type has survived there. Still, some elements of that tradition do persist in the liberal racial project (in its social-democratic aspirations), and in the new abolitionist project discussed below (in its dream of achieving class unity through the eradication of whiteness).
29. William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy, Chicago 1987, p. 120.
30. William Julius Wilson, 'The Right Message', The New York Times, 17 March 1992, p. A15.
31. Michael Lind, 'To Have and Have Not: Notes on the Progress of the American Class War', Harper's, June 1995, p. 35.
32. Ibid-., p. 44.
33. Michael Lind, The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution, New York 1995, p. 15.
34. Todd Gitlin, The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked Culture Wars, New York 1995.
35. More problematic is Gitlin's argument, in the concluding chapter, that the danger of identity politics is its alienation of white men. For them, 'there is no particular benefit in restraining politics of alienation of white men. For them, 'there is no particular benefit in restraining their resentment. . . Their fear and loathing is, in part, a panic against the relative grains of women and minorities. . . But economic jitters are only one force behind the conspicuous loathing f Democracy of all fractions. Symbols are fuel. The rage of dispossession has been at work. . .' (pp. 232-3.) Gitlin here urges racially defined minorities - and women, and gays - to restrain their demands, which he admits are justified in terms of sustained social inequalities, so that white men may keep enough of their privileges to continue in coalition politics with their less fortunate class brothers and sisters.
36. George Lipsitz, 'The Possessive Investment in Whiteness', American Quarterly, V, vol. 47, no. 3, 1995.
37. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction; David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, Verso, London 1991; Cheryl Harris, 'Whiteness as Property', Harvard Law Review, vol. 106, no. 1707 (1993).
38. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction; David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, Verso, London 1991; Cheryl Harris, 'Whiteness as Property', Harvard Law Review, vol. 106, no. 1707 (1993).
39. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction; David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, Verso, London 1991; Cheryl Harris, 'Whiteness as Property', Harvard Law Review, vol. 106, no. 1707 (1993).
40. Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control, vol. 1, Verso, New York 1994; Roediger, Wages; Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White: Irish-Americans and African-Americans in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia, Verso, New York 1995; Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth Century America, Verso, New York 1990.
41. Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control, vol. 1, Verso, New York 1994; Roediger, Wages; Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White: Irish-Americans and African-Americans in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia, Verso, New York 1995; Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth Century America, Verso, New York 1990.
42. Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control, vol. 1, Verso, New York 1994; Roediger, Wages; Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White: Irish-Americans and African-Americans in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia, Verso, New York 1995; Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth Century America, Verso, New York 1990.
43. Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control, vol. 1, Verso, New York 1994; Roediger, Wages; Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White: Irish-Americans and African-Americans in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia, Verso, New York 1995; Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth Century America, Verso, New York 1990.
44. Roediger, Wages, p. 13; emphasis in the original.
45. 'Editorial: Abolish the White Race - By Any Means Necessary', Race Traitor, no. 1, Winter 1993, pp. 4-5.
46. Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, New York 1985; Elazar Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the US Between the World Wars, New York 1992; Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, New York 1981.
47. Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, New York 1985; Elazar Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the US Between the World Wars, New York 1992; Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, New York 1981.
48. Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, New York 1985; Elazar Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the US Between the World Wars, New York 1992; Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, New York 1981.
49. Professor Troy Duster has raised important questions about this argument that biologistic racism has been discredited, or at least relegated to a secondary status in contemporary debates about race. In his Backdoor to Eugenics, New York 1990, he suggests that biologism is as susceptible to rearticulation as any other ideological dimension of racism. Additional evidence for this argument is provided by the appearance of Ricahard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, New York 1994. I think that, while scientific grounds for racism are no more dead than religious ones, the biologistic argument cannot regain the cachet it possessed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the political dimension of race will persevere as its predominant determinants. See Omi and Winant, Racial Formation.
50. Professor Troy Duster has raised important questions about this argument that biologistic racism has been discredited, or at least relegated to a secondary status in contemporary debates about race. In his Backdoor to Eugenics, New York 1990, he suggests that biologism is as susceptible to rearticulation as any other ideological dimension of racism. Additional evidence for this argument is provided by the appearance of Ricahard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, New York 1994. I think that, while scientific grounds for racism are no more dead than religious ones, the biologistic argument cannot regain the cachet it possessed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the political dimension of race will persevere as its predominant determinants. See Omi and Winant, Racial Formation.
51. Professor Troy Duster has raised important questions about this argument that biologistic racism has been discredited, or at least relegated to a secondary status in contemporary debates about race. In his Backdoor to Eugenics, New York 1990, he suggests that biologism is as susceptible to rearticulation as any other ideological dimension of racism. Additional evidence for this argument is provided by the appearance of Ricahard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, New York 1994. I think that, while scientific grounds for racism are no more dead than religious ones, the biologistic argument cannot regain the cachet it possessed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the political dimension of race will persevere as its predominant determinants. See Omi and Winant, Racial Formation.
52. Robin D.G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class, New York 1994.
53. Robert Farris Thompson, 'The Kongo Atlantic Tradition', cited in Shelley Fisher Fishkin, 'Interrogating "Whiteness", Complicating "Blackness", Remapping American Culture', in American Quarterly, V, vol. 47, no. 3, 1995, p. 429.