White Women, Race Matters

With extracts from in-depth life history interviews, this unique book examines the experiences of white women in a racially hierarchical society. Traditional debates concerning racially hierarchical societies have tended to focus on the experience of being black. White Women, Race Matters breaks with this tradition by focusing on the particular ecperiences of white women in a racially hierarchical society. By considering the ways in which their experience not only contributes to but challenges the reproduction of racism, the work offers a rigorous examination of existing methodologies, practices and assumptions concerning racism and gender relations. Supported by extracts from in-depth life history interviews, White Women, Race Matters provides valuable course material.

A powerful analysis of the social construction of "whiteness". The book examines and documents the unique experiences of white women and their coming to racial consciousness. American Sociological Association’s Jessie Bernard Book Award winner Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights’s Outstanding Book Award winner