Comprehensive, thorough, well documented -- "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness" is a very detailed examination of the mechanisms in US culture that keep racism in place and deprive us of the compassion so many of us might claim to possess. White people are trained to stop hearing when what other people are experiencing threatens their own reality. Lipsitz provides so many examples across history, and even of examples where people of color have acted to serve white supremacy.

"Malcolm X used to say that racism is like a Cadillac : they make a new model every year . The racism of 2018 differs from the racism of 1964 , and consequently needs to be analyzed , interpreted , addressed , and redressed accordingly."