The election of Barack Obama as president led some to suggest that not
only has US society made significant strides toward racial equality,
but it has moved beyond race or become “post-racial.” In fact,
studies have exposed numerous contradictions between the ways white
Americans answer questions on surveys and how they respond to similar
questions during in-depth interviews. How do we make sense of these
contradictions? In White Race Discourse: Preserving Racial Privilege
in a Post-Racial Society, John D. Foster examines the numerous
contradictions sixty-one white college students exhibit as they
discuss a variety of race matters. Foster demonstrates that the whites
interviewed possess a sophisticated method of communication to come
across as ambivalent, tolerant, and innocent, while simultaneously
expressing their intolerance, fear, and suspicion of nonwhite
Americans. Whether intended or not, this ambivalence assists in
efforts to preserve social inequities while failing to address racial
injustices. While many scholars have written about the “racetalk”
of whites, few have succeeded in bridging both the theoretical and
methodological gaps between whiteness scholars and discourse analysts.
White Race Discourse presents evidence that these white Americans are
“bureaucrats of whiteness” in that they defend the racial status
quo through their discourse. It will be a valuable addition to the
library of students and scholars of race studies and linguistics who
research US race relations and discourse analysis.
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Preserving Racial Privilege in a Post-Racial Society
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780739175996
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter