Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America

by George Yancy professor of philosophy, Emory University, Cornel West Union Theological Seminary (Foreword by)

Overview

When George Yancy penned a New York Times op-ed entitled “Dear White America” asking white Americans to confront the ways that they benefit from racism, he knew his article would be controversial. But he was unprepared for the flood of vitriol in response.

The resulting blowback played out in the national media, with critics attacking Yancy in every form possible—including death threats—and supporters rallying to his side. Despite the rhetoric of a “post-race” America, Yancy quickly discovered that racism is still alive, crude, and vicious in its expression. In Backlash, Yancy expands upon the original article and chronicles the ensuing controversy as he seeks to understand what it was about the op-ed that created so much rage among so many white readers. He challenges white Americans to rise above the vitriol and to develop a new empathy for the African American experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538104057
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/15/2018
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.74(w) x 8.85(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

George Yancy is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 18 books. He is known for his influential essays and interviews in the New York Times' philosophy column, The Stone. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Foreword: The End of White Innocence
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Talking About Racism: When Honesty Feels Like Too much to Bear

Chapter 1: The Letter: Dear White America
Chapter 2: Dear Nigger Professor
Chapter 3: Risking the White Self
Chapter 4: Accepting the Gift

Notes
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

05/07/2018
Emory philosophy professor Yancy (On Race: 34 Conversations in a Time of Crisis) delivers a powerful reflection on the complexities of racial dialogue in America in this follow-up to a provocative 2015 op-ed published in the New York Times. That piece, “Dear White America,” was about racism in the 21st century and was addressed explicitly to white Americans. Though Yancy knew his essay would be controversial, he was unprepared for the deluge of hostile responses it provoked. Here, the original article appears and is followed by chapters addressing the range of responses that followed. In one chapter, Yancy parses the devastating examples of the vitriolic expressions of “unmitigated white hatred” he received. Further chapters assess the more empathetic responses and consistently invite white readers to think critically about how and why they talk about race, while also exploring Yancy’s own vulnerability within the discourse. Empathetic readers who do not initially recognize their implicit connections to racism will find insight in many of Yancy’s observations, such as his statement that “bonding with certain black people does not exempt you from white racism, just as having married a woman does not free me from sexism.” Direct and honest, Yancy’s delineations of white violence, white indifference, and white naïveté are both thoughtful and discomforting. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Rather than just acknowledging modern-day American racism, Yancy implores white readers to face the truth of their own bigotry, the privilege of their whiteness, and the ways that this whiteness inherently dehumanizes and endangers black people.. .. Yancy asks white readers to fundamentally question their sense of self, to accept the ugliness of the whiteness inherent in them. This is a monumental, incredibly difficult intellectual task.. .. Backlash is an honest, smart, and thoughtful book.. .

Los Angeles Review of Books

[Backlash] urges White readers to suspend their belief in a postracial America and to resist disassociating themselves from a social system that violently suppresses Black Americans.Yancy’s gift should be taken with the caveat that those who wish to accept it must also accept responsibility for educating themselves beyond this book on what it means to own such a gift, rather than have Yancy provide readers with all the answers to their questions about (i.e., the owner’s manual). [Backlash] urges readers to understand that interrogating one’s own racism is an ongoing, disquieting, and necessary process and not an occasion for self-congratulation.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

Searing, honest, and Unflagging in its pursuit of understanding.

Foreword Reviews

Backlash is a decisive intervention on a hugely important topic by a very courageous thinker. Highly recommended.

Simon Critchley

In his new book, philosopher George Yancy uncovers just how unprepared even well-meaning whites are for a courageous conversation about race.

The Guardian

Amidst the #MeToo debate, the second year of President Trump’s reign, and ongoing racial oppression in the US, George Yancy’s Backlash is a blow to the jaw, a suffering, an imposition – but an inevitable one.. .. Yancy’s Backlash enables an uncomfortable insight into the state of race relations in Trump’s America. The author counters the disclosure of incredible hate he has received in response to his call for an honest engagement with whiteness with a powerful historical and theoretical comprehension of the implicit working mechanisms and explicit manifestations of white racism. Most significantly, the volume further conceptualizes the process of un-suturing as a possible means to engage in the unfinished project of tackling white privilege and forging an antiracist white subjectivity. [Backlash is] in equal parts contemporary document, testimony, confession, and call to action."

Kult Online

"Through his wisdom, his research, and his lived experience, George Yancy has provided us with a thought-provoking example of the impact of racism in America: personally and impersonally, individually and collectively. Yancy deconstructs racism in a powerful way, and deepens our understanding by sharing his personal experience. All Americans can learn from reading this text. White Americans, and for that matter members of any dominant group, should especially treat this book as a special gift."

Howard J. Ross

"One of Backlash’s greatest attributes is that it reads as the work of a philosopher operating at the intersection of higher education and public intellectualism.. .. Backlash documents what happened when Yancy wrote honestly about white racism in America; more than that, it reclaims the discursive ground away from racist reactionaries and provides a way of moving the conversation forward."

The Black Scholar

Although fighting racism is one of the beliefs of our liberal society, not only astute social critics but also thousands of “ordinary” people clearly experience the falsity of the predominant liberal dogmas. Yancy conclusively demonstrates how we should move far beyond the liberal attacks on alt-right neocons towards asking the key question: to what degree the conservative backlash was made possible by the silences and compromises of the liberal perspective itself. No politically correct language policy can effectively disturb actual relations of domination and power. For this fact alone, Backlash deserves to become a classic.

Slavoj Žižek

This is a timely account of how raising the issue of racism to a white public can bring out the worst of humanity: hate.. .. It is not an easy book to read, no matter what your cultural and racial heritage, because it is unutterably sad that we need such a book in 2018. But we do require such an analysis of racism, and its concomitant ally whiteness. It is ubiquitous and rather insidious in all forms of social life, from the White House to the trailer park. Yancy gives heartfelt, yet courageous, insight into how the vitriol from whites stirred his humanity to be proactive, and seek further ways to reach the unreachable.

Choice Reviews

I experienced Yancy as a man of passion, perception, and integrity.. . he is a truth‐teller and, ultimately, a formidable ally.

Friends Journal

George Yancy’s courageous appeal to White America “to confront the problem of whiteness; to cultivate a critical awareness of the specter of whiteness and white privilege that each one of you inherits” elicited a remarkable range of responses, some hideous beyond words, some welcoming what he rightly called a “gift.” This eloquent meditation on the events and their meaning calls on us, with piercing honesty, to think hard, and work hard, to excise the malignancy of white supremacy from our culture and our lives.

Noam Chomsky

For a professional philosopher to communicate such deep rawness and suffering is, quite simply, astounding.

Tikkun Magazine

This is a timely account of how raising the issue of racism to a white public can bring out the worst of humanity: hate.. .. It is not an easy book to read, no matter what your cultural and racial heritage, because it is unutterably sad that we need such a book in 2018. But we do require such an analysis of racism, and its concomitant ally whiteness. It is ubiquitous and rather insidious in all forms of social life, from the White House to the trailer park. Yancy gives heartfelt, yet courageous, insight into how the vitriol from whites stirred his humanity to be proactive, and seek further ways to reach the unreachable.

Choice

This is a timely account of how raising the issue of racism to a white public can bring out the worst of humanity: hate. . . . It is not an easy book to read, no matter what your cultural and racial heritage, because it is unutterably sad that we need such a book in 2018. But we do require such an analysis of racism, and its concomitant ally whiteness. It is ubiquitous and rather insidious in all forms of social life, from the White House to the trailer park. Yancy gives heartfelt, yet courageous, insight into how the vitriol from whites stirred his humanity to be proactive, and seek further ways to reach the unreachable.

CHOICE