Being White

"Being White is a brilliant book! Karyn McKinney reveals how a common array of evasions, disavowals, and rationalizations enables white college students to obscure the role that race plays in their own lives and in the lives of others. The empathy, insights, and analysis contained in this book offer an unparalleled understanding of the inner workings of contemporary whiteness." -- George Lipsitz, Professor of American Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz
"Being White expands and deepens our knowledge of whiteness in vital ways. Karyn McKinney captures the racial obliviousness that shapes the world of white youth in America. This condition, in part based on ignorance, and in part self-serving, damages their lives, their dreams, and their potential as human beings. Yet McKinney does not only indict. She also shows white youth challenging racism and moving against it. Being White is both a serious indictment and a testament of hope. Highly recommended!" -- Howard Winant, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara
"Karyn McKinney is one of the few race scholars in the United States to empirically examine how young whites reconcile white privilege in an era of colorblindness. Being White gives voice to whites' narratives about what it means to be white that are typically never heard beyond the insularity of all-white social networks. Her analysis about the ways in which white privilege is reproduced and justified through a process often invisible to young whites is a major contribution to our understanding of race relations." -- Charles A. Gallagher, Associate Professor, Race and Urban Concentration Chair, Georgia State University
"In this fine book Karyn McKinney goes boldly where few scholars have ventured. She is perhaps the first scholar to explore thoroughly how young white Americans of this era think about-or, often, do not think about-their white identities, privileges, and racist society. McKinney probes cleverly and deeply into how young white Americans relate to being white and their evanescent sense of whiteness." -- Joe Feagin, Ella C. McFadden Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University