Whiteness and Social Change provides a comparative engagement with whiteness – the unearned and at times unmarked social-structural privilege afforded to some at the expense of others – in contemporary Australia and Canada. Through a detailed examination of high profile community campaigns at Sandon Point (New South Wales, Australia) and the Red Hill Creek valley (Ontario, Canada) – situated alongside an analysis of white interpretations of the 1966 Wave Hill walkout (Northern Territory, Australia) – the actions of broader communities supporting First Peoples struggles expose whiteness as manifesting itself irrespective of intent. Existing scholarship in sociology, science studies, political theory and critical whiteness studies are drawn on to identify means through which whiteness can be destabilised. The outcome is an identification of how collaborative struggle and the politics of experience produce moments of cognitive dissonance amongst white supporters. These moments are transformative, lay foundations for respect and recognition, and the move towards a fair and just society.

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

"White resistance to racial equality is nothing new-yet its expression can change over time. Examining emerging manifestations can shed light on the larger forces that underpin racial inequalities. In this volume, leading scholars of race and whiteness assess contemporary shifts in white attitudes about racial justice and racial ideology, illustrating these dynamics with case studies at the personal, ideological, and institutional levels. Clashes such as the standoff with law enforcement at Cliven Bundy's ranch and white nationalist videos on YouTube vividly illustrate the vitality of contemporary racism. Examinations of more easily overlooked, yet also consequential arenas-art museums that enforce their boundaries as elite white spaces, conservative "right on crime" policies that mean new ways of surveillance and punishment for people of color, and settler colonialism in the work of liberal environmental advocacy groups-also give insight into the novel mechanisms and specific ideologies within institutions that reproduce racial inequality. Collectively, this empirically-rich collection helps explicate the racialized fear of change (whether grounded in reality or the imagination) that reinforces the pillars of white supremacy. Contributors also explore, with a critical eye, social movements for racial equality"--

White identity is in ferment. White, European Americans living in the United States will soon share an unprecedented experience of slipping below 50% of the population. The impending demographic shifts are already felt in most urban centers and the effect is a national backlash of hyper-mobilized political, and sometimes violent, activism with a stated aim that is simultaneously vague and deadly clear: 'to take our country back.' Meanwhile the spectre of 'minority status' draws closer, and the material advantages of being born white are eroding. This is the political and cultural reality tackled by Linda Martín Alcoff in The Future of Whiteness. She argues that whiteness is here to stay, at least for a while, but that half of whites have given up on ideas of white supremacy, and the shared public, material culture is more integrated than ever. More and more, whites are becoming aware of how they appear to non-whites, both at home and abroad, and this is having profound effects on white identity in North America. The young generation of whites today, as well as all those who follow, will have never known a country in which they could take white identity as the unchallenged default that dominates the political, economic and cultural leadership. Change is on the horizon, and the most important battleground is among white people themselves. The Future of Whiteness makes no predictions but astutely analyzes the present reaction and evaluates the current signs of turmoil. Beautifully written and cogently argued, the book looks set to spark debate in the field and to illuminate an important area of racial politics.

This book examines the post-9/11 African American novels, developing a new critical discourse on everyday discursive practices of whiteness. The critique of everyday life in the racial context of post-9/11 American society is important in considering diverse forms of the lived experiences and subjectivities of black people in the novels. They help us see that African American representations of the city have political significance in that the “neo-urban novel” explores the possibility of a black dialogic communication to build a transformative social change. Since the real power of Whiteness lies in its discursive power, the book reveals the urgency to understand not only how whiteness works in everyday life in American society. But it also explores how to cultivate new possibilities of configuring and performing Blackness differently, as a response to the post-9/11 configurations of the culture of fear, to produce new ways of interactional social relations that can eventually open up the space of critical awareness for white people to work against rather than reinforce discursive practices of White supremacy in everyday life. This book explores how the multiple subjectivities and transformative acts of blackness can offer ways of subverting the discursive power of the white embodied practices. What defines post-9/11 America as a nation that is consumed by the fear of racialized terrorists is its roots in the fear of (‘uncontrollable’) Blackness as excess and ominous threat in the domestic terrain through which the ideology of White supremacy has constructed for governing through Whiteness. African-American urban novels published in the twenty-first century respond to the discursive power of normative Whiteness that regulates black bodies, selves and lives. This book demonstrates how black people contest white dominant social spaces as sites of black criminality and exclusion in an attempt to re-signify them as the sites of black transformative change through personal and grassroots activism through their performativity of Blackness as an agential identity formation in their interpersonal urban social encounters with white people. Hence, the vulnerable spaces of Whiteness in interracial urban encounters, as it pervasively addresses those moments of transformative change, enacted by Black characters, in the face of the discursive practices of whiteness in the everyday life. These novels celebrate multifarious representations of black individuals, who are capable of using their agency to subvert White discursive power, in finding ways in their personal and grassroots activism to transform the culture of fear that locates Blackness as such in an attempt to make a difference in the American society at large.

Winner of the 2002 Outstanding Book Award presented by the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association The election of 1994, which heralded the demise of Apartheid as a legally enforced institutionalization of "whiteness," disconnected the prior moorings of social identity for most South Africans, whatever their political persuasion. In one of the most profound collective psychological experiences of the contemporary world, South Africans are renegotiating the meaning of their social positionalities. In this book, Melissa Steyn, herself a white South African, grapples with what it means to be white, reflecting on events in her past that still resonate with her today. Her research includes discourse with more than fifty white South Africans who are faced with reinterpreting their old selves in the light of new knowledge and possibilities. Framed within current debates of postcolonialism and postmodernism, "Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be" explores how the changes in South Africa's social and political structure are changing the white population's identity and sense of self.

'Every voice raised against racism chips away at its power. We can't afford to stay silent. This book is an attempt to speak' The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today. THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION NARRATIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR A BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD

'Why are you making this about race?' This question is repeated daily in public and in the media. Calling someone racist in these times of mounting white supremacy seems to be a worse insult than racism itself. In our supposedly post-racial society, surely it’s time to stop talking about race? This powerful refutation is a call to notice not just when and how race still matters but when, how and why it is said not to matter. Race critical scholar Alana Lentin argues that society is in urgent need of developing the skills of racial literacy, by jettisoning the idea that race is something and unveiling what race does as a key technology of modern rule, hidden in plain sight. Weaving together international examples, she eviscerates misconceptions such as reverse racism and the newfound acceptability of 'race realism', bursts the 'I’m not racist, but' justification, complicates the common criticisms of identity politics and warns against using concerns about antisemitism as a proxy for antiracism. Dominant voices in society suggest we are talking too much about race. Lentin shows why we actually need to talk about it more and how in doing so we can act to make it matter less.

This is the story of an anti-racist campaign staged by social workers and allied health professionals which encourages readers to consider their own possibilities for anti-racist action. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and subsequent expression of anger, frustration and grief at the continued existence of racism led to more sophisticated and honest conversations about racism and its impact. Social work also started to recognise its own problem with racist systems and its failure as a profession that strives for social justice to have addressed this in any meaningful way. The Anti-Racist Social Worker describe a successful campaign of anti-racist direct action that was staged by a small group of social workers and occupational therapists. The opening chapter tells the story of the campaign from the coming together of the campaign group to the concluding day of action. Subsequent chapters are written by campaign members at different stages of their career, from student social worker to Chief Social Worker for England. Each describes journeys to and stories of anti-racist activism. These stories are about either the writers’ experiences of racism and how this translated into action or their growing understanding of the impact of racism and subsequent decision to take personal action. Importantly, each chapter offers a personal case study and therefore a suggestion of individual anti-racist action that can be taken by social workers. The Anti-Racist Social Worker is a call for action told through individual stories. It shows how those in social care and allied health professions can contribute in a meaningful way to the creation of the change we need and encourages everyone to consider their own roles in dismantling racism.