A Disloyal White Man: Unlocking the Prison House of Race and Class

A Disloyal White Man: Unlocking the Prison House of Race and Class is a collection of thirty-one essays that ask the question: Can a tall, pale-skinned, middle-class man of European descent move beyond the prejudices baked into him by American history and culture?

The essays chronicle David Groff’s own sometimes painful journey away from unthinking whiteness toward a fuller understanding of and appreciation for the rich human tapestry in America and the wider world. This book will challenge readers to transcend their own racial and class identities and embrace a vision of America where the old prison house of race and class no longer constrains the emergence of what Martin Luther King Jr. called the beloved community.

David Groff is a retired Africanist historian who holds degrees from the University of California, Davis, and Stanford University. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger and did research in Côte d'Ivoire. Since retiring as the chief administrative officer of Linfield College's Portland Campus, he has served on the boards of Homeshare Oregon and Operation Nightwatch, a nonprofit that provides hospitality to poor and unhoused people in downtown Portland. He also is one of the founders of the Interfaith Alliance on Poverty, a coalition of fourteen faith communities dedicated to understanding and addressing the root causes of poverty. He is married and has two daughters and three grandchildren. He lives in Portland.