Whitewashing Race
The Myth of a Color-Blind Society
Chapter One
Of Fish and Water
Perspectives on Racism and Privilege
There ain't no white man in this room that will change places with me-and
I'm rich. That's how good it is to be white. There's a one-legged busboy
in here right now that's going: "I don't want to change. I'm gonna ride
this white thing out and see where it takes me." -Chris Rock
According to a well-known philosophical maxim, the last thing a fish
notices is the water. Things that are unproblematic seem natural and tend
to go unnoticed. Fish take the water they swim in for granted, just as
European Americans take their race as a given, as normal. White Americans
may face difficulties in life-problems having to do with money, religion,
or family-but race is not one of them. White Americans can be sanguine
about racial matters because their race has not been (until recently)
visible to the society in which they live. They cannot se ... read full excerpt from Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society ebook
