Breaking the Code of Good Intentions: Everyday Forms of Whiteness | 
 enlarge | Author: Melanie E. L. Bush
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 126918
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 328
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8
ISBN: 0742528642
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.800973
EAN: 9780742528642
ASIN: 0742528642
Publication Date: July 28, 2004
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Product Description
Breaking the Code of Good Intentions places the current-day white experience within a political, economic and social context by exploring the perceptions of students about identity, privilege, democracy, intergroup relations. This book documents how the everyday thinking of ordinary people contributes to the perpetuation of systemic racialized inequality and identifies opportunities to challenge these patterns, with particular recommendations for the educational system of the twenty-first century. Visit our website for sample chapters!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Coming to terms with cultural capital May 13, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is absolutely wonderful; it is engaging and at times difficult to swallow as we come to terms with whiteness and the issue of cultural capital. The lessons learned from this text are insurmountable. Coming to terms with individual philosophical perspective defaults is difficult, however finding the `cracks in the wall' make it worth while. This is a must read for all academic, especially educators who are working for the betterment of the student populations they serve!
 the strange world of racism November 9, 2006
6 out of 68 found this review helpful
White studies, what an interesting concept. Those who subscribe to White Studies are the first to tell you that there is Race is not a viable construct, except, of course-the White Race. Hidden in this insanity is the popular trope that only white's can be racist (except the chosen white feminists.
This may remind those who have studied the rise of Nazi Germany of the melding of the hated Oost-Juden and the Jewish citizens of early 20th century Germany. To the Nazi's and other Europeans a Jew was a Jew no matter where he lived or what he did. The Jew must be erradicated since they were considered a detriment to society.
Depending on which white studies author you read their premise is not that much different than that of the Nazis. White (the non-race) people are apperently guilty of a multitude of sins from colonialism to genocide from lookism to homophobia. Whiteness is a problem that must be erradicated so that the perfect peace of equality can reign supreme. But, before this can happen the "idea of a white race must be destroyed, or so says, Harvard's Prof.Ignatiev.
Though the white studies people claim that {race) is a social construct this construct appears only to white people. This can mean only one thing blacks, asians, hispanics and others are merely victims of their own biological nature.
Clearly written and enlightening August 24, 2005
63 out of 64 found this review helpful
This book caught my attention because I have several near and dear "Angry White Males" in my life that I just don't understand. To my way of thinking, life has given them everything - good educations, good jobs, nice homes, nice families, nice prospects - yet they invest an inordinate amount of energy being angry at and fearful of THEM. ("THEM" being pretty much anyone who is not white.) Why, I've wondered, are my near and dear so aggravated by THEM when in truth, the enemy more likely to undermine their peace and prosperity is a white CEO? Why do right-wing talk show hosts wax rabid on the topic of "welfare queens" yet turn a blind eye to (or worse, make excuses for) corporate looters?
Of course, the answer if far too complex to address here, but Melanie Bush provides interesting insights, not the least of which is the basic presumption of "white goodness." Bush spent five years collecting and documenting perspectives of white students on inequality and found their perceptions of and rationalizations about equality have little basis in reality. Simply put: despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, most white students believe that not only have other races achieved equality, they are now privileged at the expense of white people. (aka "reverse discrimination.")
The first part of the book analyses the ethnographical data collected through interviews and surveys with students at the City University of New York (CUNY) probing attitudes and perspectives about race and class. The final chapter explores "Cracks in the Wall of Whiteness" and presents some consciousness raising activities...a hopeful chapter without which the book would not be complete. The Afterword provides a post 9/11 perspective on notions of race, and had me vigorously nodding in agreement at every page.
This book is clearly written and enlightening.
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