Dismantling Racism

Shows how Caucasians continue to abuse us and our colored heritage; this book could work wonders as a mandatory classroom read in predominantly White high schools.

We have found the enemy and he is us.

I'm reading this book for a class on Difficult Conversations and highly recommend it. However, I feel a need to respond to another review. I appreciate jmk444 taking the time to read Brandt's book and responding in a manner that honestly expresses jnmk444's feelings, however, the reviewer misrepresents what Barndt says concerning racism. The reviewer writes, "The fact is that "racism" is defined as believing your own race to be superior to others." This may be the way the reviewer defines racism, but Barndt is quite clear how he defines it: "Racism goes beyond prejudice. It is backed up by power. Racism is the power to enforce one's prejudices" (page 28) (Barndt's use of prejudice is, I believe, similar to the reviewer's use of bigotry). Barndt goes on to assert that the dominate power operating in the United States is that of white people, hence only white people can be racist. African-Americans, Latino, and others can be prejudiced as well as whites, but because they do not hold the power, they cannot be racist. As a white person, it is hard to consider myself a racist, and I have tried hard to wiggle out of it, using much of the emotional and reason-filled thinking exhibited by this reviewer. I'm not there yet, but Barndt's book makes a compelling argument that can only be immediately dismissed by those who wish to be blind to the power differential in this country. If you doubt that as a white person you have certain privileges because of your skin color, I would suggest looking up Peggy McIntosh's article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Joesph Barndt addresses the issues facing white Americans as we try to address our significant role in dismanteling and deconstructing racist privelage very well. Elucidating a number of important issues, from personal to institutional to cultural racism, he also addresses racism in the church; a task that few folks of the cloth will address adequately. One of the areas that I found facinating was his discussion on cultural borrowing (p 106), or rather cultural theft, as one of the worst forms of racism. He states that, "Immitation, it is often said, is the highest form of flattery. But when the immitation is done with neither the permission or acknowledgement, and when it is accompanied by assertations that the culture from which it is taken is inferior, then immitation becomes the lowest form of racist theft" (106). This is an excellent text and I reccomend it to anyone working in the field of social justice adn social diversity as well as folks trying to get a handle and understanding on what the issues and roles of white folks are around race and racism. It is non-threatening, does not attack or try to promote guilt, but it does call for some critical thinking and evaluation.