The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives
The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives
Mura, David
product information
Condition: New, UPC: 9781517914547, Publication Date: Sun, January 1, 2023, Type: Paperback ,
join & start selling
description
atives white people create to justify white supremacy and sustain racist oppression

The police murders of two Black men, Philando Castile and George Floyd, frame this searing exploration of the historical and fictional narratives that white America tells itself to justify and maintain white supremacy. From the country's founding through the summer of Black Lives Matter in 2020, David Mura unmasks how white stories about race attempt to erase the brutality of the past and underpin systemic racism in the present.

Intertwining history, literature, ethics, and the deeply personal, Mura looks back to foundational narratives of white supremacy (Jefferson's defense of slavery, Lincoln's frequently minimized racism, and the establishment of Jim Crow) to show how white identity is based on shared belief in the pernicious myths, false histories, and racially segregated fictions that allow whites to deny their culpability in past atrocities and current inequities. White supremacy always insists white knowledge is superior to Black knowledge, Mura argues, and this belief dismisses the truths embodied in Black narratives.

Mura turns to literature, comparing the white savior portrayal of the film Amistad to the novelization of its script by the Black novelist Alexs Pate, which focuses on its African protagonists; depictions of slavery in Faulkner and Morrison; and race's absence in the fiction of Jonathan Franzen and its inescapable presence in works by ZZ Packer, tracing the construction of Whiteness to willfully distorted portraits of race in America. In James Baldwin's essays, Mura finds a response to this racial distortion and a way for Blacks and other BIPOC people to heal from the wounds of racism.

Taking readers beyond apology, contrition, or sadness, Mura attends to the persistent trauma racism has exacted and lays bare how deeply we need to change our racial narratives--what white people must do--to dissolve the myth of Whiteness and fully acknowledge the stories and experiences of Black Americans.

reviews

Be the first to write a review

member goods

No member items were found under this heading.

notems store

listens & views

PIANO SOLOS 1

by EANET,LARRY

COMPACT DISC

$13.49

IT IS MY HEART SINGING

by CASSATT STRING QUARTET / DAVIDSON

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$14.75

OUT OF MIND (MINI LP ...

by KAGAWA,RYO

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$20.99

Return Policy

All sales are final

Shipping

No special shipping considerations available.
Shipping fees determined at checkout.
promoting relevance through notable postings ]
share it, buy it, sell it ]

A notem is a post that highlights an experience, idea, topic of interest, an event ... whatever a member believes worthy of discussion. Each notem becomes a pathway by which to make meaningful connections.

notems is a free, global social network that rewards members by the number and quality of notems they post.

notemote® © . Privacy Policy. Developed by Hartmann Software Group