This book is all about how the U.S. protects whiteness & elevates it above all else. It is a demonstration that racism is more than lynching & calling someone a nigger. It shows how subtle, abstract & pervasive racism is & why it is so difficult for almost everyone to grapple with. It is not something that is static, it changes, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in obvious ways, but it is always changing, which adds to the difficulty of eradicating it. The history of discrimination in housing is explored, showing that while racists words were never explicitly written into laws that were supposed to be about making the acquisition of housing fair, restrictive covenants outside of the law, both written & unwritten, were enforced & were not unknown to the proper authorities. The far reaching effects of this, such as social programs to benefit those not so well off, money for schools & investment & how all of that were steered away from minorities is made painfully clear. Civil Rights laws had instant backlash & many of them were made to benefit the very people who made them necessary in the first place, white people.

Lipsitz points out the hypocrisy of using minorities to fight in wars against people who have done no wrong to them & the supposedly give them the same rights & freedoms that they themselves cannot enjoy in the same country that they are supposedly fighting for. Minority soldiers were denied health benefits & opportunities for jobs & housing that were supposed to be for soldiers returning home from war. In all of this, various minorities who encounter white supremacy & racism in various ways can & were used against one another & other times were made to come together. Each situation differed & depended upon who perceived what as a benefit. Some groups fought to be identified as white, understanding the value of it in this society as opposed to fighting to eradicate racism & prejudice. This dismantles the very tired argument about other groups once considered minorities who have encountered fewer obstacles to upward mobility. If they could pass as white, they would fight for the benefit of being labeled as such, be they Asian, Jewish, Irish, Hispanic, etc.

There is a chapter dedicated to how whiteness, being valued in this society, translates to land & property that can be transferred to future generations, allowing some families to prosper & since minorities face discrimination in this regard, are unable to move their families up & give them the means to stay there & possibly continue to move up in society. There is time given to the notion of "reverse racism" via things like Affirmative Action & how this is somehow misconstrued as an undue benefit as opposed to a way to combat exclusion. In addition to that, attention is given to how holding such a view while ignoring how many benefit from school or job opportunities because a parent or other relative attended a place or knows someone is hypocritical to say the least.

In the latter chapters especially, there is much attention given to cultural appropriation & how the narrative around a popular black artist or performer or certain aspects of black culture & other cultures are taken & distorted in ways that allow them to be commodified & comfortable consumed. There is a chapter on identity politics & how certain images are chosen in the media that are only ostensibly combatants to racism & sources of pride but when one probes deeper they really only reinforce racism & assuage liberal guilt.

Time is also given to how black people especially, have in their own creative ways, been able to communicate their realities via music, poetry, film etc., since they were excluded from other professions that would allow them to do so. The culture & history of California & New Orleans, the latter in light if Hurricane Katrina, are given two separate chapters to show recent events that clearly demonstrate that the assault on minorities & the poor never waned.

Overall, this is a good book. It demonstrates the reality of race in this country. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how racism is abstract & evolving.