Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage

Two-Faced Racism examines and explains the racial attitudes and behaviours exhibited by whites in private settings. While there are many books that deal with public attitudes, behaviours, and incidences concerning race and racism (frontstage), there are few studies on the attitudes whites display among friends, family, and other whites in private settings (backstage). The core of this book draws upon 626 journals of racial events kept by white college students at twenty-eight colleges in the United States. The book seeks to comprehend how whites think in racial terms by analyzing their reported racial events.

Joe R. Feagin is professor in the facutly of arts at Texas A & M and author of numerous books, including White Racism and Systemic Racism.

Dr. Leslie Houts Picca is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio. She received her Ph.D. in sociology and women’s studies and gender research graduate certificate from the University of Florida. Dr. Picca’s areas of special interest are race and ethnicities, structures of privilege (especially whiteness), and the sociology of sexualities. In early 2007, she added her expertise to a vigorous national discussion of racism among white college students, and was quoted in more than 160 media outlets. Dr. Picca has been interviewed by the Associated Press, Inside Higher Education and CNN's Paula Zahn, among others, about racism.