A Time for Change: How White Supremacy Ideology Harms All Americans - Paperback

by Martha R. Bireda (Author)

How did America become a nation obsessed with race? A Time for Change: How White Supremacy Ideology Harms All Americans explores America's beginnings as a "class-based" society, the creation of America's racial consciousness through the invention of the social construction of "whiteness", and the ways in which white supremacist ideology has been infused, reinforced, and perpetuated in the collective American mind and culture through the utilization of stereotypical images of blacks. The purpose of this book is to explore how the ideology of white supremacy has done immeasurable damage to all Americans, whites as well as blacks and other persons of color. In this context, the relationship between racism and classism is explored. This book provides an opportunity by which those Americans who identify and are perceived as "white" can engage in a process of self-reflection to transcend one's attachment to the social construction of "whiteness" and white supremacy ideology that have been forced upon them. It is the premise of this book that racial healing in this nation can only occur through a true examination of America's history, as well as individual and collective responsibility and efforts to undo over 300 years of racist cultural conditioning.

Author Biography

Martha R. Bireda, PhD, is director of the Blanchard House Museum of African American History and Culture, located in Punta Gorda, Florida. For over 30 years, Dr. Bireda has consulted, lectured, written about, and provided assistance to school districts, law enforcement agencies, and corporations concerning issues related to race, gender, class, culture, and power.