The election of Barack Obama as president led some to suggest that not
only has US society made significant strides toward racial equality, but
it has moved beyond race or become "post-racial." In fact, studies have
exposed numerous contradictions between the ways white Americans answer
questions on surveys and how they respond to similar questions during
in-depth interviews. How do we make sense of these contradictions? In
White Race Discourse: Preserving Racial Privilege in a Post-Racial
Society, John D. Foster examines the numerous contradictions sixty-one
white college students exhibit as they discuss a variety of race
matters. Foster demonstrates that the whites interviewed possess a
sophisticated method of communication to come across as ambivalent,
tolerant, and innocent, while simultaneously expressing their
intolerance, fear, and suspicion of nonwhite Americans. Whether intended
or not, this ambivalence assists in efforts to preserve social
inequities while failing to address racial injustices. While many
scholars have written about the "racetalk" of whites, few have succeeded
in bridging both the theoretical and methodological gaps between
whiteness scholars and discourse analysts. White Race Discourse presents
evidence that these white Americans are "bureaucrats of whiteness" in
that they defend the racial status quo through their discourse. It will
be a valuable addition to the library of students and scholars of race
studies and linguistics who research US race relations and discourse
analysis.
