I would like to introduce The Cost of Privilege: Taking On the System
of White Supremacy and Racism by Chip Smith. I helped with the
research for this book and two of my poems are featured. Please read
the following description and information about The Cost of Privilege.
If you have any questions please contact Chip Smith or reply to this
email. Thank you.
--Joe Navarro
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2007
CONTACT: Chip Smith
910-670-0891, www.CostofPrivilege.com
The Cost of Privilege Taking on the System of White Supremacy and
Racism By Chip Smith
480 pages, ISBN: 978-0-97918-180-9, $19.95 paperback
Publication date: March 1, 2007
This is a path-breaking study of the sometimes baffling dynamics of
racial oppression in the United States. In fact, this is the most
comprehensive and clear analysis of racism and national oppression
that I’ve seen. I especially like the fact that this is a call for
action against racial injustice. Sun Tzu wrote the classic “The Art of
War”; but this is book about the “art of liberation” in America today.
It is recommended reading for any serious activist fighting for social
justice in our time. Not just theory, but a guide to action! --Komozi
Woodard, Professor of History, Public Policy & Africana Studies, Sarah
Lawrence College
The Cost of Privilege tears through the matrix of “race relations”
to expose a power structure that has shaped all economic, political
and cultural life in the United States, since colonial settler days.
The visible half of that system is the systematic oppression,
super-exploitation and demonization of people of color by a white
capitalist elite. But the system also requires regular white folks
accepting it as normal and natural, even though they pay a terrible
cost for it. This white acquiescence is based on the systematic
awarding of white privileges, large and small, to everyday working
people who sometimes cling desperately to "whiteness" and often don’t
recognize the role their lives play in a much larger scheme.
In spite of the depth and breadth of the analysis, this is an
accessible, almost conversational book. Interspersed in the chapters
are descriptions of fascinating historical events, concrete current
examples, tools for building organization and dismantling racism,
personal stories, poems, and bullet points for ease of use. Smith’s
engaging and personal writing provides the tools necessary to take on
the questions every activist comes up against:
* Are "identity politics" a roadblock to working class unity?
* How do you do organizing in mainly white workplaces, schools,
communities?
* Where do gender, women's oppression and resistance fit into
the big picture?
* How far can people of color trust white activists?
* How do privileges affect our day-to-day lives,+ and what can
we do about it?
The Cost of Privilege aims to give a broader context for current
areas of activism, and to contribute to building a movement that can
transform society for the benefit of the vast majority. This book is a
call to action based on a clear understanding of history and the
economic, physical, and cultural methods that have been used to keep
people divided.
The Cost of Privilege is one of those rare books that manages to
blend first-rate analysis around racism and white supremacy, with
first-rate class analysis as well. The result is that the reader gains
invaluable insights into the ways in which capitalism and white
supremacy have interacted to produce and reproduce injustice, and the
ways in which the working class has remain divided by the promise of
white privilege to some of its members. This is an important and
insightful volume.--Tim Wise, author, White Like Me: Reflections on
Race from a Privileged Son
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
An anti-racist activist for 40 years, author Chip Smith has been a
Machinists union steward, stay-at-home dad, staffer for Jobs with
Justice, and scholar. His Ph.D. dissertation at Temple University
(1994) examined the impact of Philadelphia's de-industrialization on
low wages, African Americans and unionization. He currently lives in
Fayetteville, N.C., where he was a founder of the local Peace with
Justice coalition in 2001.
________________________________________________
Visit my website. Updated regularly.
http://www.geocities.com/poetajoe/Joe_Navarro.html
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