Description
Book SynopsisChallenges perspectives on race that rely upon oft-repeated claims that race is culturally constructed and, hence, simply false and distorting. This book argues that we need to explain how race is experienced by people as a daily reality.
Trade Review"Hartigan is a good storyteller ... and a clear analyst of how local residents, black and white, make sense of race as it affects their lives and their sometimes desperate attempts to make do in this impoverished bit of the city... By asking us to see race and class in different ways, this book helps us to imagine a world where such categories might be meaningless or superseded, even as it immerses us in the intractable, dangerous and hurtful relationships these fields of inequality perpetuate around us."--Marc Christensen, Metro Times Detroit "A sobering examination of the tangled web of race, class, and struggles over space."--Choice "This inventive, impressive [book] ... contributes to the reorientation of studies of white identity ... [It will] reward historians who venture into this ambitious anthropological account."--David Roediger, Journal of American Ethnic History "This is an excellent book that ought to be widely read ... Substantively important, theoretically sophisticated, and full of unforgettable characters."--Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Contemporary Sociology
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Names and Transcriptions xiii Abbreviations xv Introduction 3 Detroit 9 Three Neighborhoods 11 The Localness of Race 13 White People or Whiteness? 16 Structure of the Book 19 1. History of the 'Hood 24 "Disgrace to the Race" 26 The Color Line 37 Riots and Race 50 Franklin School 69 2. "A Hundred Shades of White" 83 "Hillbillies" 88 "That White and Black Shit" 107 The Wicker Chair and the Baseball Game 128 3. Eluding the R-Word 145 The "Fact" of Whiteness 151 Encounters 158 "Gentrifier" 168 "History" 191 4. Between "All Black" and "All White" 209 Statements 214 "White Enclave" 224 "Racist" 245 Curriculum 263 Conclusion 278 Notes 28S Index 347
