Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940

Lately, I find myself rereading books that challenge my understanding (not to mention my preconceived notions) of race history, but none more than Grace Elizabeth Hale's "Making Whiteness." This gem of a book ultimately defines the construction of race in the early 20th Century South and is written in a style reminiscent of Du Bois and Langston Hughes. It is an intelligent and informative examination of "class exploitation, disempowerment and racial privilege" that dares to reimagine the concept of racial integration. To quote from the book: "We need to remember that difference is created within, not before, our communities; that difference is created within, and not before, our histories; that difference is created within, and not before, ourselves." Over the past few months, I have amassed several books on race, segregation, Reconstruction, lynchings, Jim Crow, etc., and I consider "Making Whiteness" a cornerstone in my library.

Dr. Hale has written an excellent work that treats the psycho-social construction of racial predjudice in America. This work is must reading for all those interested in riding their minds, and by association, our nation of the politics of racial pollerization. Her vivid treatment of barbarious lynching will leave the reader either profoundly angry or demonstratively abashed about what horror we are capable of her in the United States. The President's national commission on race would do well to read and openly discuss this grounbreaking and poignant volume.