The Abolition of White Democracy

Possibly the most important political science book I've read in the last five years. Drawing on ideas of race advanced by Noel Ignatiev ("Race Traitor") and David Roediger ("The Wages of Whiteness"), Olson provides a compelling argument for the idea that the United States was not founded upon an idea of an ever-expanding democracy, but firmly on white-supremacist, racist democracy that must be uprooted if any true democratic ideals are to be reached. Olson's conception of "white citizenship" as the basis for rights in the United States is persuasively argued; racism is not, as is often stated, simply an oversight on the part of the founders but rather endemic to the system as it was designed. Olson's historical excavation of a racialized citizenship, building upon Ignatiev, Roediger and others, has profound implications for twenty-first century democracy, implicating modern citizenship as a passive kind of privilege rather than a participatory right. Olson -- who I'm happy to say is a professor near where I grew up in rural northern Arizona -- has been active in radical politics, including the phenomenal organization Bring the Ruckus (bringtheruckus.org) as well as Phoenix CopWatch. His radical goals and anti-authoritarian approach are apparent throughout the book, and lend an important mark of social change to his political and historical essays.

The Abolition of White Democracy is a closely reasoned discussion of the central paradox of U.S. life: the necessary connection between democracy and white supremacy. In other words, in the U.S., democracy for some has been predicated on the exclusion of others; white citizenship and the oppression of black folk have been mutually constituted. Racism is neither an oversight in an otherwise democratic project nor a reflection of the contradiction between American ideals and practice. Olson traces the origins of race in colonial times as a cross-class alliance between poor and upper class whites at the expense of black folks who were pushed down into slavery. The resulting racialization of citizenship-white citizenship-has led to a passive model of citizenship, that is, citizenship as a privilege and an identity, rather than an active, participatory model. In conclusion, he sketches the outlines of abolition democracy, a challenge to the privileges of whiteness, which would expand the promise of American democracy and make white citizens human.

Dr. Olson's book will be a benefit to those who read it. His critical analysis of the ideas of race and democracy in the u.s. is fresh and powerful. This book has it's place in the classroom and in the streets. The writing is in plain words easy to digest. Highly recommended.