The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Introduction

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-10

Chapters 11-13

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Discussion Questions

Essay Topics

Consider the pathway of neoliberalism and its effects on disenfranchised Americans. How does neoliberalism as an ideology correspond to possessive investment in whiteness in terms of visibility and intentionality?

What role did white masculinity have in the surge of the new patriotism of the Reagan years? Discuss the fictive visions of masculine patriarchy that Lipsitz portrays. How do cultural tropes distract from the underlying structures that preserve the possessive investment in whiteness?

What does Lipsitz mean by “sadism in search of a story” (82)?