White Women, Race Matters - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816622574 ISBN 13: 9780816622573

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1993

Synopsis

Beginning with the premise that race shapes white women's lives, just as much as gender, shapes men's lives or sexuality shapes heterosexual lives, Ruth Frankenberg examines, through 30 life-history interviews, just how this "whiteness" is constructed. "White Women, Race Matters" does not, however, aim to point its finger at a monolithic "whiteness" as the sole cause of racism and sexism. Rather, it intelligently examines and documents the unique experiences of white women and their coming to racial consciousness. Frankenberg suggests that the commonly held perceptions of "whiteness" as a hollow concept, and race and racial consciousness as the province of non-white people, are false. "Whiteness" is not an empty signifier, but rather a multifaceted daily experience of racial structuring, and through ethnographic descriptions of the 30 womens' lives, Frankenberg provides evidence that "whiteness" is a specific set of cultural practices. The only difference, she says, is that unlike other cultural practices, it is as yet both unmarked and unnamed. Ruth Frankenberg has written on building multi-racial women's studies curricula, academics' responses to Edward Said's "Orientalism", and the meaning and utility of the concept of the "postcolonial", In addition to teaching and research, Frankenberg has been involved in feminist, antiracist, and antifascist activism.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Frankenberg is Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness and editor of Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, published by Duke University Press.

From Publishers Weekly

Through documenting the life histories of 30 white women, Frankenberg compellingly outlines the interplay of perception and reality in shaping the structures of racism. Rather than understanding whiteness as neutral and void of race, Frankenberg straightforwardly argues that whiteness and its accompanying privilege is crucial in structuring race relations. She proposes that the women she interviewed struggled to understand and to situate themselves within, or outside of, existing race relations and racial consciousness. For example, several subjects reported that as children, they never thought about race, while others, though raised in segregated and racist environments, found ways to challenge the status quo. Frankenberg explores our experiences and perceptions of race, sex and intimacy; she considers, for example, how white girls are taught to fear black men. This book is a valuable contribution to the study of the relationship of whiteness to race, and is a must for anyone concerned with issues of feminism and racism. Frankenberg is assistant professor of American studies at the University of California at Davis.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0816622574
• ISBN 13: 9780816622573
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English