Still Whitewashing Racism: Joe Feagin

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still whitewashing One recent conservative argument asserts that the United

States has seen an “end to racism.” In this view, serious insti-


book reviews

tutionalized racism ended with the 1960s civil rights move-


racism ments and the elimination of legal segregation, and most
whites have since accepted the principles of fairness and
review by joe feagin
nondiscrimination. The problems that Americans of color still
face are the result of their own character and family flaws.
Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society These conservative analysts also foster the widely accepted
by Michael K. Brown, Martin Carnoy, Elliott Currie, view among whites that society is now color-blind, with little
Troy Duster, David B. Oppenheimer, Marjorie M. Shultz, discrimination and no need for affirmative action. Indeed,
and David Wellman since the mid-1960s, many white conservatives have mount-
University of California Press, 2003, 338 pages ed a counterattack against the civil rights movement and pro-
grams designed to remedy discrimination, such as aggressive
Consider Ann Dandridge and affirmative action. They invent terms like “reverse discrimina-
William Costin, a black woman and tion” to argue that whites are now victims of discrimination—
a black man known to very few without offering evidence—and terms like “model minority”
Americans today. Yet both were to suggest that African Americans can prosper without overt
members of the first “First Family.” civil rights protests, as Asian Americans supposedly did—again
Ann Dandridge was a half-sister of without evidence.
Martha Washington, and William Whitewashing Race carefully assesses and rejects conser-
Costin was Martha’s grandson. Both vative arguments, relying on extensive research data that
were enslaved at Mt. Vernon. Ann shows continuing racial discrimination in employment, hous-
Dandridge was the child of an ing, education, the criminal justice system, and politics.
enslaved woman raped by Martha’s father, and William Costin One important insight this book offers is that present-day
was the child of Ann Dandridge and Martha’s ne’er-do-well racial hostility and discrimination by whites are legacies of past
white son Jacky. At least two other children of such rapacious racial oppression, so that, unless we understand the many
behavior, John Custis and West Ford, were close black relatives material, social, and ideological links to that past, we cannot
of George and Martha Washington but also remain unknown. adequately explain why African Americans still face serious
All these African Americans were enslaved workers who built socioeconomic problems. For example, major government
up wealth for related white families. programs after World War II, such as the GI bill for education
Even this brief account raises profound questions: What and federally insured mortgages, helped millions of whites
long-term impact has this once extensive and violent slavery move from poverty and low-wage jobs to affluence and white-
had on U.S. society? What effects have 350 years of slavery collar jobs, while mostly denying the same help to African
and subsequent legal segregation had on the enrichment of Americans because the programs either were inherently dis-
white families and the impoverishment of black families? And criminatory or colluded in discrimination in related employ-
how are these past events involved in rationalizing racist ide- ment and housing markets. White Americans did not make it
ologies? Why has so much history of slavery and official seg- out of poverty and low-wage jobs by hard work alone; feder-
regation been whitewashed or covered up? al programs that favored whites were essential. The legacies
Those who do not know their past cannot understand of massive racial oppression in the past have helped to account
their present. Today, influential conservative writers and pun- for continuing and unjust enrichment for white Americans and
dits, mostly white, know this and press the public to ignore or continuing and unjust impoverishment for African Americans
misremember the country’s highly racist past and to turn a in recent generations.
blind eye on its persistently racist present. In Whitewashing In addition, since the 1950s white employers have aggres-
Race, seven distinguished sociologists take on these conser- sively moved better-paying jobs from historically industrialized
vative analysts and skillfully dissect their arguments. These vet- areas in the North, where black workers had some access, into
eran scholars, true racial realists, conclude that the United newer industrial—and less unionized—areas of the North and
States remains an institutionally racist society, backing their South, where white workers got the largest share of new jobs.
strong case with recent social science research on racial Government programs helped white developers destroy black
inequality and discrimination. residential communities in central cities and replace them with

58 contexts fall 2005


commercial developments, shoving black residents into high- enforcing the ban on housing discrimination so that families

book reviews
er-density, lower-quality housing. In both North and South, of color can access good housing (the major source of wealth
suburbanization increased racial isolation, as white employers for U.S. families). Government should also provide an expand-
and developers moved new jobs and housing to all-white sub- ed “social wage,” including government-guaranteed health
urbs. Without public transportation to suburbs, many care for all workers.
Americans of color were increasingly isolated from better jobs For nearly four centuries, racial oppression in this society
and good-quality housing. Today, the problem for many has been much more than a matter of white prejudice and
African Americans and other Americans of color is isolation in individual discrimination; it has been deeply embedded in the
central-city residential areas, a pattern for which powerful social institutions as they evolved. Today this institutionalized,
white decision makers are largely responsible. systemic racial oppression continues as a kind of slavery that
In assessing solutions for institutional racism, the authors will not die. If it ever happens, eradication of this ingrained
call for a significant expansion of public investments. The goal racial oppression will likely involve large-scale organization by
should be to reverse “long-standing patterns of disinvestment concerned Americans from all backgrounds who finally insist
in minority communities with investment in those communi- on the full implementation of the old ideals of “liberty and jus-
ties.” Government should make much greater public invest- tice for all.”
ments in schools, jobs, and community services. These new
efforts should also include strategies to increase wealth in Joe Feagin, a past president of the American Sociological Association,
communities of color, such as providing a tax-supported trust has written and edited 47 books, most concerning racial and gender prej-
fund for every child to guarantee an adequate education and udice and discrimination, especially institutionalized discrimination.

young, isolated, and black


review by lauren j. joseph

The Minds of Marginalized Black Men and behaviors, as most studies of poor blacks in urban neigh-
by Alford A. Young borhoods do, he examines their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas,
Princeton University Press, 2004, 266 pages including their views on work, stratification in American soci-
ety, and social inequality. Young also looks at how they think
The Near West Side of Chicago is about the impact of race on their own experiences and on
one of the most destitute urban their prospects for moving up in the world, reaching for the
regions in the United States. The American Dream. His interviews of 26 men between the ages
neighborhood is geographically and of 20 and 25 develop a picture of how poor black men make
socially isolated from downtown sense of their lives in the face of difficult conditions, helping
Chicago and suburban areas, and us understand how and why they act as they do.
virtually all its residents are African Young makes the effects of social isolation on these young
American, living either in or near men strikingly clear through his discussion of their relation-
large housing projects. The men in ships. Less than a third have social contact of any kind with
this neighborhood have more expe- non African Americans, and more than half do not know or
rience with the penal system than with employment, and gang regularly interact with a single person with a college degree.
activity and drug dealing are widespread. Most of their contacts are with African Americans who are
The Minds of Marginalized Black Men is based on Alford unemployed and did not finish high school. They have little
Young’s extensive interviews of poor black men from the Near experience with steady work; only one of the men Young
West Side. Rather than concentrating on their norms, values, talked with had ever held a job for more than a few months.

fall 2005 contexts 59

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