Summary

The author cites research that shows that a majority of whites say they have been discriminated against. She also cites research that white children feel a sense of racial superiority as early as preschool, but they are given no training about how to deal with race and how not to perpetuate racial superiority. Ironically, white progressives perpetuate racism by refusing to acknowledge their racial privilege.

The author examines what she calls the "discourse of self-defense" (109) that results when whites are challenged. Whites cast themselves as the victims and refer to those who challenge them as "dangerous" (though no danger actually exists). This discourse serves to again establish whites' racial superiority and call those who have less power dangerous, thereby putting them back in an inferior position and reinforcing existing racist ideas of people of color as dangerous. Whites also reserve more resources of...