The first book-length study of W. E. B. Du Bois's conceptualization of American whiteness. W. E. B. Du Bois famously argued that whiteness in the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries functioned as a "public and psychological wage," offering valuable social standing to even the poorest of whites. Such "compensation," dependent on the devaluation of Black existence, helped secure the US capitalist regime and prevent interracial class solidarity. This book argues that Du Bois's influential account of compensatory whiteness is crucially important, but also incomplete. For Du Bois, whiteness was never one thing, but many. Focusing on Du Bois's middle-period work (about 1920-1940), Ella Myers uncovers an overlooked, complex 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 shows that Du Bois's analysis, developed in response to the pressing political problems of his own day, also offers insight into 21st century struggles for racial justice. Myers argues that it is important to recognize the extent to which anti-Blackness continues to underwrite plural -and deeply disturbing-forms of white gratification here and now. Doing so helps explain the tenacity of America's unequal racial order and also reveals why creative, multifaceted strategies of resistance are necessary to end it.

About the Author
Ella Myers is a political theorist and Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender Studies at the University of Utah. She is author of Worldly Ethics: Democratic Politics and Care for the World (2013).

Reviews
The greatest danger to American democracy is the ethos of whiteness-the practice of valuing white lives over nonwhite lives. In this carefully written and exhaustively researched book, Ella Myers provides a first-rate interpretation of W. E. B. Du Bois's analysis of whiteness. Rather than whiteness exclusively providing a material wage, Myers explores Du Bois's understanding of the various levels on which whiteness provides gratifications to its bearers. She provides us with Du Bois's critical point of view for grappling with a perennial threat. The Gratifications of Whiteness is an essential text for anyone concerned with the fate of democracy in America. * Melvin Rogers, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University *
Moving deftly between the history of anti-Black racism and a critical analysis of the present, The Gratifications of Whiteness demonstrates the continuing urgency of W. E. B. Du Bois's political vision. Ella Myers mines Du Bois's writings to vivify the ruinous work of whiteness and enlist readers in following the lead of the activists and intellectuals who have opposed its power. The result is a devastating and yet hopeful portrait of US democracy in the post-post-racial era. * Lawrie Balfour, author of Democracy's Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W. E. B. Du Bois and Imagining Freedom: Toni Morrison and the Work of Words *



Book Information
ISBN 9780197556771
Author Ella Myers
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 370g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 154mm * 14mm