White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, And The Shared Meanings Of Race

White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race

2013 HONORABLE MENTION, ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANIST SOCIOLOGY BOOK AWARD2012 FINALIST, SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS C. WRIGHT MILLS BOOK AWARDDiscussions of race are inevitably fraught with tension, both in opinion and positioning. Too frequently, debates are framed as clear points of opposition--us versus them. And when considering white racial identity, a split between progressive movements and a neoconservative backlash is all too frequently assumed. Taken at face value, it would seem that whites are splintering into antagonistic groups, with differing worldviews, values, and ideological stances.White Bound investigates these dividing lines, questioning the very notion of a fracturing whiteness, and in so doing offers a unique view of white racial identity. Matthew Hughey spent over a year attending the meetings, reading the literature, and interviewing members of two white organizations--a white nationalist group and a white antiracist group. Though he found immediate political differences, he observed surprising similarities. Both groups make meaning of whiteness through a reliance on similar racist and reactionary stories and worldviews.On the whole, this book puts abstract beliefs and theoretical projection about the supposed fracturing of whiteness into relief against the realities of two groups never before directly compared with this much breadth and depth. By examining the similarities and differences between seemingly antithetical white groups, we see not just the many ways of being white, but how these actors make meaning of whiteness in ways that collectively reproduce both white identity and, ultimately, white supremacy.Review"The author positions race squarely at the center to challenge the shared assumptions of white supremacist logic on both sides of the debate. The clever thesis blurs the boundaries between 'good whites' and 'bad whites', rendering the white reader intellectually stimulated ..." -Kathy A. Mills, Qualitative Research"Hughey's analysis suggests that, while different in form, members of both organizations are 'bound' by a tendency to diminish the disadvantages faced by racial minorities as well as a desire to highlight the alleged disadvantages faced by white Americans, sometimes aiming to make the claim that white actors experience disadvantages that are equal to those faced by of 'people of color'." -Ajay Sandhu, Canadian Journal of SociologyAbout the AuthorMatthew W. Hughey is Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption (2014), co-editor of The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? (2011), co-author of The Wrongs of the Right: Race, Language, and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama, and is a frequent voice in national media such as NPR, ABC News, USA Today, and The New York Times.