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Hardcover
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
"'We shall overcome,' but how? Derald Wing Sue points us to a path. He invites readers to engage him in dialogues to confront the master narrative of American history— the story that this country was settled by European immigrants and that Americans are white.Taking us beyond the Black and White binary, he illuminates the experiences of Americans of the twenty-first century's society of expanding ethnic diversity." —Ronald Takaki, author, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America "This book is intended to provoke and challenge, and it succeeds admirably. Sometimes it even made me angry, but it always forced me to think about myself and assess the way I behave." — Arthur Levine, Ph.D., president, Teachers College, Columbia University "Dr. Sue is mapping a warrior's path with a compassionate heart.This book will take the discussion of racism in our society to a new level in which we can finally begin to address it in a manner that will bring deep changes and not just more rhetoric." —Eduardo Duran, Ph.D., Apache/Tewa, author, Buddha in Redface "Most of us have internalized attitudes that affect our actions in negative and unfair ways toward people of color. Sue's book allows us to understand those attitudes as well as the white privilege most White Americans do not realize they possess! All thinking people who wish to increase integrity in their interactions with others should read this book!" —Melba J. T. Vasquez, Ph.D., ABPP, past president, American Psychological Association's Society for the Psychology of Women "This singular book provides racially clueless and sometimes well-meaning people with the tools and context to liberate themselves— and the rest of us— from their destructive ways. Though the book centers on racism and whiteness, it also gives an insightful approach to other biased behavior, whether based on gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or other common markers of prejudice. Most important, this book offers all of us the hope that constructive change is not only possible but within our capacity to achieve." —Helen Zia, author, Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of An American People
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| Repackaged 70's stupidity/ too bad! |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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It's unfortunate that this book is so bad. It has so much potential and is taking on a very important topic. We need intellectual champions in the fight against racism in this country. What we don't need is someone who doesn't know the difference between productive conversation and mudslinging. If I wanted blind name calling I can watch Fox news. The problem with this book is that it doesn't benefit from the last thirty years of research in the field of social psychology. Prejudice is based on schemas and heuristics, a natural tendency of human beings to create overly simple representations of the world and how it works, in their mind. This is a very helpful skill which allows us to go into unfamiliar situations and bring our past experience to bear on the present. But schemas also make it more likely that we will treat large groups of objects, including people, as if they are all the same. But here is the thing about schemas. The more threatened you are, the more likely you are to activate schemas. Not only that, but people are more reluctant to change their schemas if they feel attacked. They may even become more entrenched in their beliefs. This is social psychology 101, but evidently, Dr. Sue either doesn't know that or doesn't care. Either way, his is not a helpful contribution to the field because he concludes that just about everyone who is white in America is, in fact, a racist. How unhelpful. He then goes on to develop a model of racial identity development that is more diatribe than anything remotely resembling fact. Most folks never do any of the things he attributes to normal development. It would be laughable if so many rubes weren't listenting to him. He is not as harmful to this country as Rush Limbaugh, but he is not far off. If he could create something resembling a reasonable development arch, or if he could talk about a continuum of bigotry that would allow for a discussion of how we as a people could behave more productively, that would be great. As it is, this is just another avenue to learned helplessness and those of us white folks who actually care about this issue are left demoralized and hopeless. Is that what he was trying to do?
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| Craptastic on a good day |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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If there is a God in Heaven, Nirvana or anywhere else, It will be kind enough not to force me to read another pile of manure that the Sue brothers write. He and his brother don't do their research well- 4th edition of their 'class-sick' still gets basic facts wrong- and Sue writes this for the most cretin-like caucasians possible. So, if you crack your gum, think that Michael Jackson was just the coolest black man ever, and wonder how people can buy a Cadillac while collecting welfare checks, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.
If you are a smug, self-righteous liberal that thinks about social ills and oppression and believe that people like you just need to keep gathering and discussing the proper way to liberate all people so that they can live a comfortable semi-middle-class lifestyle and thus make the world happy, please read this book over and over so that you don't have much time to work, procreate, or talk to anyone who doesn't agree with you.
If you read, have a brain, and can formulate an opinion... never, ever bother with the palp, tripe, drivel of the Sue brothers. Save a tree or find a book where the tree that died can know that it died for a good cause. The Sue brothers slaughters trees for no good purpose. Shame on them!
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| OUR Racism? |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Ok, I bought this book even after reading a review that complained about just more "white guilt". Well it was true, the couple of chapters I managed to get through were sadly reminiscent of the 70s where if you were white you were supposed to admit that you were a racist. And I understand all that BUT, I've been around for well over half a century and I'm pretty sure I've come to grips with my "Racism", not that I can't always improve.
HAVING SAID THAT... I passed the book on to a collogue with whom I am working and she rather liked the book -- Especially the questionnaire sections. Although some of the questions are trite, she thinks we can use it to stimulate some conversation. So, we'll see.
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| Overcoming Our Racism: The Journey to Liberation |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Overcoming Our Racism is an excellent perspective by Dr. Sue who is Asian. It seems that only certain minorities are always called on as using the race card. Sue points out clearly that we have lived and still live in a racist America. A selective perception and sutble type of racism reminicant of "Jim Crow", but nevertheless present in American attitudes towards people that are not Anglo. Sue, a psychologist, presents a very informative view of racism in America. The book is used as part of a graduate course in Universities that teach cultural diversity. To many the surge of Senator Obama to a significant lead in the Democratic Primary election may seem like a turning point for Americans and it may well be part of a history in the making. Nevertheless, the attitudes described by Sue are not part of everyone's perception, but still those attitudes are present and doing damage to human kind.
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| A Wonderful Book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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As a white male working in a student affairs office at a very diverse community college it is important that I take a good long look at myself to be sure I am serving our students the best way I can. This book is incredibly helpful in doing that. Did I get pissed off at things Mr. Sue talked about? Yes, of course. But he does warn his readers that they will get angry. I only got angry because I didn't want to believe what he was saying was about me, but it is. This book taught me a lot about myself, which I think is the point. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is willing to keep an open mind and is willing to go through some self evaluation.
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