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White racism
Book Reviews
families working hard to stay afloat as traditional industries restructure and eliminate thousands of jobs. Desperation leaps off the page. One man, who had been laid off and whose bills were going unpaid, thought he saw a solution in bankruptcy court, until he learned that filing for bankruptcy cost $1,000. “If I had $1,000, I wouldn’t need to go to bankruptcy court,” he said. His valuables were repossessed and he and his family slid down to the lowest rungs of poverty. This book offers a full-face stare at the difficulty of making it in jobs paying a low hourly wage, where one substantial medical bill can ruin a family and doom its children to fall even further behind than their parents. In the process of explaining what happened to the working class family, Rubin casts an eye over every major U.S. social and economic problem in the last 25 years, from housing to racial issues to inflation. Parents watch helplessly as children for whom they sacrifice to provide a better life, struggle to find even a low paying job. She sees 1972 as the last year of optimism, after which jobs became more scarce, paid less, and inflation robbed the working class income of the ability to sustain even the most modest life style. In that year, a family could make it if the male head of household made $12,000 a year, says Rubin. Now a man and wife who both work and together make three times that money cannot pay the bills. It has left people confused and angry. When these issues hit the solidly middle class young person, they move down a step in life style, for example, moving into smaller homes in what they see as less desirable neighborhoods, squeezing out the working class young people who were hoping to buy there. The social and racial tensions this causes are as real as the economic ones. And these frustrations translate into more violence and battering in the working class family as everyone tries to cope with lack of hope. The author feels that the government could help by taking a stronger role in keeping companies in the United States, and by educating young people better for the technical jobs to come. But Rubin herself offers little optimism. She sees the economic fault line referred to in the title as an increasing, not decreasing, threat to people already living on the edge. Judith Babcock Babcock Communications Benny Doon, CA Joe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera White Racism New York-London: Routledge, 230 pp., $49.95, $16.95 paper, 1995
The book holds that “ . . .the open ‘secret’ of white racism is a system of institutionalized human waste that this society cannot afford.” It proceeds, in great detail, to describe some whys and wherefores of white racism
Winter 1995
373
Public Relations Review
leaning somewhat equally on the long history of discrimination against AfricanAmericans and the fact that many white Americans still do not believe that racism still exists, or that they are active participants in its prolongation. The scapegoat theory (many whites feel better off if they feel they are doing better than the black worker) gains emphasis and is, of course, based on historic and current reality. One would appreciate the book more if it concentrated on white’s racial prejudices toward all those of color, and were more forthright in admitting that historic and current racisms are based on similar premises. In some ways, the book reviews rather than initiates. A more equitable approach, one which recognized the bias to prejudice, hatred to fear of blacks toward whites, and whites toward blacks, and similar conflicts among other groups, might have provided better balance and been more effective. While Willie Horton and Rodney Ring and Denny’s provide focus on, and evidence of, current racism, one could wish that we advance beyond stereotypes to more productive arguments. One might also wish that the authors had reminded that civil rights emerged during an expanding economy where there was more room for all to progress, and that the current, static economy often dictates that one person’s gain involves another’s loss. In contrast, the authors build a strong case against those whites who give lip service to racial equality but practice prejudice in a wide variety of coded, guarded and overt forms. “Whites must recognize racial discrimination as deadly violence against other human beings whose lost talent and energy is costly for all concerned. Whites must then implement a new consciousness by actively fighting racism in everyday life.. .so that racism may no longer be practiced with impunity.” As we see attacks on affirmative action, the squabbling among various minorities, the inequities that exist for women and minorities, we see how late we are in understanding how much cries for positive change, and how late we are in attacking a major problem which can surely improve our national well being. Solutions depend on recognition, adaptation and change. The text stresses the dangerous dimensions of our alienations and antagonisms, alerts us to the lateness of our opportunity. Frank Winston Wylie Professor Emeritus California State University,
Long Beach
Judy Scales-Trent Notes of a White Black Woman: Race, Color, Community University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 194 pp., $19.50,
1995
This is a loosely organized collection of journal entries, personal experiences, observations, and essays by a woman who is classified as black by law and family, but who physically appears to be white. It offers a unique perspective from one who is, by her own definition, bicultural. This is not a 374
Vol. 21, No. 4
families working hard to stay afloat as traditional industries restructure and eliminate thousands of jobs. Desperation leaps off the page. One man, who had been laid off and whose bills were going unpaid, thought he saw a solution in bankruptcy court, until he learned that filing for bankruptcy cost $1,000. “If I had $1,000, I wouldn’t need to go to bankruptcy court,” he said. His valuables were repossessed and he and his family slid down to the lowest rungs of poverty. This book offers a full-face stare at the difficulty of making it in jobs paying a low hourly wage, where one substantial medical bill can ruin a family and doom its children to fall even further behind than their parents. In the process of explaining what happened to the working class family, Rubin casts an eye over every major U.S. social and economic problem in the last 25 years, from housing to racial issues to inflation. Parents watch helplessly as children for whom they sacrifice to provide a better life, struggle to find even a low paying job. She sees 1972 as the last year of optimism, after which jobs became more scarce, paid less, and inflation robbed the working class income of the ability to sustain even the most modest life style. In that year, a family could make it if the male head of household made $12,000 a year, says Rubin. Now a man and wife who both work and together make three times that money cannot pay the bills. It has left people confused and angry. When these issues hit the solidly middle class young person, they move down a step in life style, for example, moving into smaller homes in what they see as less desirable neighborhoods, squeezing out the working class young people who were hoping to buy there. The social and racial tensions this causes are as real as the economic ones. And these frustrations translate into more violence and battering in the working class family as everyone tries to cope with lack of hope. The author feels that the government could help by taking a stronger role in keeping companies in the United States, and by educating young people better for the technical jobs to come. But Rubin herself offers little optimism. She sees the economic fault line referred to in the title as an increasing, not decreasing, threat to people already living on the edge. Judith Babcock Babcock Communications Benny Doon, CA Joe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera White Racism New York-London: Routledge, 230 pp., $49.95, $16.95 paper, 1995
The book holds that “ . . .the open ‘secret’ of white racism is a system of institutionalized human waste that this society cannot afford.” It proceeds, in great detail, to describe some whys and wherefores of white racism
Winter 1995
373
Public Relations Review
leaning somewhat equally on the long history of discrimination against AfricanAmericans and the fact that many white Americans still do not believe that racism still exists, or that they are active participants in its prolongation. The scapegoat theory (many whites feel better off if they feel they are doing better than the black worker) gains emphasis and is, of course, based on historic and current reality. One would appreciate the book more if it concentrated on white’s racial prejudices toward all those of color, and were more forthright in admitting that historic and current racisms are based on similar premises. In some ways, the book reviews rather than initiates. A more equitable approach, one which recognized the bias to prejudice, hatred to fear of blacks toward whites, and whites toward blacks, and similar conflicts among other groups, might have provided better balance and been more effective. While Willie Horton and Rodney Ring and Denny’s provide focus on, and evidence of, current racism, one could wish that we advance beyond stereotypes to more productive arguments. One might also wish that the authors had reminded that civil rights emerged during an expanding economy where there was more room for all to progress, and that the current, static economy often dictates that one person’s gain involves another’s loss. In contrast, the authors build a strong case against those whites who give lip service to racial equality but practice prejudice in a wide variety of coded, guarded and overt forms. “Whites must recognize racial discrimination as deadly violence against other human beings whose lost talent and energy is costly for all concerned. Whites must then implement a new consciousness by actively fighting racism in everyday life.. .so that racism may no longer be practiced with impunity.” As we see attacks on affirmative action, the squabbling among various minorities, the inequities that exist for women and minorities, we see how late we are in understanding how much cries for positive change, and how late we are in attacking a major problem which can surely improve our national well being. Solutions depend on recognition, adaptation and change. The text stresses the dangerous dimensions of our alienations and antagonisms, alerts us to the lateness of our opportunity. Frank Winston Wylie Professor Emeritus California State University,
Long Beach
Judy Scales-Trent Notes of a White Black Woman: Race, Color, Community University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 194 pp., $19.50,
1995
This is a loosely organized collection of journal entries, personal experiences, observations, and essays by a woman who is classified as black by law and family, but who physically appears to be white. It offers a unique perspective from one who is, by her own definition, bicultural. This is not a 374
Vol. 21, No. 4