Racial Situations: Class Predicaments of Whiteness in Detroit

by John Hartigan Jr.

Book Overview

Racial Situations challenges perspectives on race that rely upon oft-repeated claims that race is culturally constructed and, hence, simply false and distorting. John Hartigan asserts, instead, that we need to explain how race is experienced by people as a daily reality. His starting point is the lives of white people in Detroit. As a distinct minority, whites in this city can rarely assume they are racially unmarked and normative--privileges...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691028850
• ISBN13: 9780691028859
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

necessary book

This book is very indepth, and is an excellent sociological source pertaining to race relations, different american cultures, or the city of Detroit

Fascinating!

As a white person who grew up in Detroit in the 1980s, this book caught my eye. Hartigan explores the ways in which whites are viewed in Detroit, in ways that can either emphasize or de-emphasize their whiteness. He explores whites in three different neighborhoods, where they are variously constructed as hillbillies, gentrifiers and racists, by interviewing and observing residents. He also brings into play the history of Detroit - the differences between the riots of the 40s and 60s - and examines the implications of racial tensions. Hartigan makes his topic vivid and interesting through his incorporation of personal narratives and his own experiences. This book is good not only for the anthropologist interested in American ethnography but also for the reader interested in race and history.