The Gratifications of Whiteness: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Enduring Rewards of Anti-Blackness

W. E. B. Du Bois' conceptualization of American whiteness is explored in Ella Myers' book, "The Idea of Whiteness." She argues that Du Bois' analysis offers insight into 21st-century struggles for racial justice and reveals the extent to which anti-Blackness continues to underwrite plural forms of white gratification. Myers calls for creative, multifaceted strategies of resistance to end America's unequal racial order.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 12 January 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

The first comprehensive study of W. E. B. Du Bois' conceptualization of American whiteness, this book delves into the intricate and multifaceted nature of Du Bois' understanding of whiteness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Du Bois famously argued that whiteness in the United States served as a public and psychological wage, providing valuable social standing to even the poorest of whites. This compensation, dependent on the devaluation of Black existence, helped secure the US capitalist regime and prevent interracial class solidarity. However, this book argues that Du Bois' influential account of compensatory whiteness is incomplete.

For Du Bois, whiteness was not a singular concept but rather a complex amalgamation of various elements. Focusing on Du Bois' middle-period work (approximately 1920-1940), Ella Myers uncovers an overlooked and intricate analysis that theorizes whiteness as a source of varied gratifications. These gratifications include not only the status rewards of racial capitalism but also the enjoyment of gratuitous Black suffering and the conviction that the planet belongs to those marked as white.

The book demonstrates that Du Bois' analysis, developed in response to the pressing political problems of his own day, offers insight into 21st-century struggles for racial justice. Myers argues that it is essential to recognize the extent to which anti-Blackness continues to underwrite plural and deeply disturbing forms of white gratification in the present. Doing so helps explain the persistence of America's unequal racial order and reveals why creative, multifaceted strategies of resistance are necessary to end it.

Weight: 518g
Dimension: 161 x 243 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197556764