The Politics of Whiteness

Book excerpt: The Politics of Whiteness presents the first sustained analysis of white racial identity among workers in what was the South’s largest industry for much of the twentieth century: textiles. Michelle Brattain, who grounds her work in a study of Rome, Georgia, from the Great Depression to the 1970s, adds a significant new dimension to a field that before had focused primarily on antiunionism, paternalism, or mill village culture. Many scholars have argued that racial tensions kept black and white workers from seeing their shared interests. While that may be so, says Brattain, Jim Crow and southern industry also functioned to give white workers very different and racially specific interests. Most important, Brattain uncovers considerable white working-class political influence and activism, which, by re-creating and defending southern institutions grounded in the idea of racial difference, helped pave the way for resistance to the civil rights movement.