Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American LifeA new edition of a celebrated contemporary work on race and racism Praised by a wide variety of people from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Zadie Smith, Racecraft “ought to be positioned,” as Bookforum put it, “at the center of any discussion of race in American life.” Most people assume racism grows from a perception of human difference: the fact of race gives rise to the practice of racism. Sociologist Karen E. Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue otherwise: the practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.” And this phenomenon is intimately entwined with other forms of inequality in American life. So pervasive are the devices of racecraft in American history, economic doctrine, politics, and everyday thinking that the presence of racecraft itself goes unnoticed. That the promised post-racial age has not dawned, the authors argue, reflects the failure of Americans to develop a legitimate language for thinking about and discussing inequality. That failure should worry everyone who cares about democratic institutions. |
Contents
Individual Stories and Americas Collective Past | 75 |
Of Rogues and Geldings | 95 |
Origins of the New South and the Negro Question | 151 |
What One Cannot Remember Mistakenly | 171 |
Invisible Ontology | 193 |
Racecraft and Inequality | 261 |
Acknowledgments | 291 |
Other editions - View all
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life Karen E. Fields,Barbara J. Fields Limited preview - 2014 |
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life Karen Fields,Barbara J. Fields Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
African American African descent Afro Afro-Americans ancestry Appiah argument Azande Barack Obama blood called Carolina census century Chapter Civil claim collective color line concept culture disfranchisement donors Dreyfus economic Emile Durkheim English European Evans-Pritchard evidence example fact Forms freedom genetic genome Gram Grandmother Fields groups Hispanic History human Ibid identify ideology imagine immigrants individual inequality intellectual invisible ontology Jefferson Jews Jim Crow Jimmy the Greek Journal Karen labor language Lemon Swamp lives look memory moral multiracial National nature Negro numbers Obama ontology Origins percent person physical police political post-racial president problem question race relations racecraft racial racism religion rituals scientific segregation sickle cell slaveholders slavery slaves social society South Southern story things thought tion Toni Morrison traits Transfusion United University Press Vann Woodward Virginia W. E. B. Du Bois Washington white Americans witchcraft woman Woodward York