Possessive Investment in Whiteness

George Lipsitz is Professor of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of A Life in the Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition (Temple), Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s, Dangerous Crossroads, and Time Passages.

"If we could only take one book with us into the 21st century, this is the one I would choose. With lucidity and passion, George Lipsitz reveals that so-called 'color-blind' public policy actually contributes to the maintenance of racism; that white privilege and the demonizing of colored people are two sides of the same coin; and that whiteness is both a huge subsidy as well as a noose around the necks of working-class white folk. His insights into how the color line works in the realm of public policy, politics, and culture, and what we must do to destroy it, can save our lives." -Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America

• Introduction: Bill Moore's Body 1. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness 2. Law and Order: Civil Rights Laws and White Privilege 3. Immigrant Labor and Identity Politics 4. Whiteness and War 5. How Whiteness Works: Inheritance, Wealth, and Health 6. White Desire: Remembering Robert Johnson 7. Lean on Me: Beyond Identity Politics 8. "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac": Antiblack Racism and White Identity 9. "Frantic to Join...the Japanese Army": Beyond the Black-White Binary 10. California: The Mississippi of the 1990s Notes Acknowledgments [to come] Index