Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction: The Unbearable Whiteness of Being 1

1 An Analytic of Whiteness 39

2 White Exceptionalism 91

3 Double Consciousness 136

Conclusion: A Place in the Rainbow 178

References 205

Index 219

About the Author

Linda Martin Alcoff is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College

Reviews

"A profound meditation on 'whiteness' – its past, its present, and its possible future – by one of our leading scholars of race. Deftly interweaving theory, autobiography, and her own personal history of antiracist activism, Linda Martín Alcoff has produced the most impressive philosophical exploration ever of this peculiar 'world-historical' social identity."
Charles Mills, Northwestern University "Against the contemporary backdrop of changing racial demographics and widespread condemnation of its relative power and privileges, Linda Alcoff challenges us to think in more nuanced ways about whiteness. This is a compellingly hopeful if sober analysis, offering renewed possibility for a much more modest conception of whiteness, one incorporating a commitment to racial justice as part of its raison d'être. The Future of Whiteness is a book for our times."
David Goldberg, University of California, Irvine

"Written well and cogently argued, The Future of Whiteness will spark debate in the field and will illuminate racial politics."
Political Studies Review