Perhaps Roediger would have benefited by providing his audience with story telling or other tools the reader could use to actively engage in the activities provided throughout the book.
As one continues reading they soon realize Roediger provides his own interpretation and synthesis of psychoanalysis from himself and others, acknowledging the Marxist thoughts and psychoanalytical processes that led to racism during the early part of American history, where working class racism was most likely to occur.
What Roediger does attempt successfully is to distinguish the term "whiteness" as a separate entity, a fact many philosophers and educators agree on. Duggan (1997) notes much chaos arose following publication of the book, in part because some suggest the book helped create movements whose purpose was to eliminate members of our culture and race that were "white" instead of minorities. This idea according to Duggan is perpetuated before the reader even begins reading the book, in full view of the book cover depicting according to Duggan, two very large and "Amazonian" type back females attempting to choke two white men one might describe as "sporty." This use of visual imagery on behalf of Roediger suggests the author was committed to spreading the principle or idealism that it is possible to relinquish the white race. Despite this fact, many including Duggan decide it is virtually impossible for whites to completely wipe out blacks, or for blacks to wipe out whites.
I think Duggan makes a good point suggesting Roediger does provide a thesis and argument, but then fails to tell people how to go about their chores and successful oversee this business. Roediger is often noted as someone that formally believes white people should shed their skins or deny their heritage by taking on a new one, perhaps that of an African-American. To do this however, one must ask of Roediger's book, as does Duggan, what the real meaning of "being white" means to citizens at large and to individuals within a company or organization.
There is no doubt left in the mind of the reader that subjects of whiteness and discrimination continue within the United States, as hundreds of researchers have contemplated and postulated ideas on matters as this (Bonnet, 1996; Frankenberg, 1997;...
It seems to this reviewer that the practices of the white workers that Roediger describes are not far removed from this. Though they did not own the blacks, they worked to hold them down so that they themselves could be made to feel superior. Roediger may want to call such behavior prepolitical, apparently in the belief that only when class distinctions enter does the relationship become political. However, class and
The wages of whiteness spread to include the social systems that would subjugate blacks, such as the police department, the local government, and even fiscal segments of society. He maintains the wages of whiteness actually helped contribute to capitalism and the class system in our own society, and so, they ultimately led to more feelings of racism and hatred, as well. The author asserts this early in the book,
Each brings the evidence to light by utilizing a different set of sources, one slightly more personal and narrative than the other but both clearly expressive of the expansion of the ideals of America as a "white" masculine society of working class people that needed and obtained voice through ideals that attempted, at least to some degree to skirt the issue of race. Race was represented in both works
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