It is widely understood that race is a social fact with profound
implications for life chances, group identity, collective representation
and for the social order. 'Whiteness', the source of race-based
inequality and injustice is perpetuated through power, violence and an
array of complex processes which help protect the status quo. While
there has been much focus on the psychological harm of racism on people
of colour, less attention has been paid to the role of psychological
functioning of white groups in maintaining unequal social
configurations. In this much-needed book, Guilaine Kinouani, a leading
thinker and commentator on race, deftly cuts to the heart of the
problem, arguing that whiteness is a historically and socially located
psychosocial phenomenon as much as one which evades time and space
locations. She examines how the psychological and psychic factors
involved in the reproduction of whiteness intersect with macro
structures, shedding light on everyday race dynamics, race inequality
and racial violence of interest to all who seek to understand the impact
of 'whiteness' so they can be more effective anti-racists.
