Review: The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this one slowly and dipped in as I could. It’s not a ‘fast’ read. It’s a thoughtful one, one that really challenged me in new ways. It challenged much of the ‘history’ I’ve been taught in schools. It helped me understand the history of race and power. It took what I knew already and built on it. The bottom line is that the concept of race is man-made. The social construction of race is not real. People have tried to categorize each other by race in order to meet their own needs, usually at the detriment of the other races. Painter does a wonderful job of pulling together the economic, scientific, political and sociological components of race in an understandable way. I really enjoyed how Painter tied whiteness to what it means to be an American and how that comes together with religion, politics and patriotism. As I’m working on increasing my own knowledge of social justice, I think this is a really great primer on the construct of race and how it has played out around the world and in the United States. I wouldn’t call this a dry read … in fact, it’s quite readable. If you’re looking to better understand race in today’s world, I think it’s critical to understand its genesis and its history. I think this is a great book to start with if you seek to better understand race and racism. Highly recommended!