Invisible Privilege: A Memoir About Race, Class, and Gender

From Publishers Weekly
Philosopher Rothenberg became a bogeywoman in the early 1990s PC wars when her textbook, Race, Class and Gender in the United States, was attacked by conservatives. Now, in an episodic memoir, she aims to "reflect in a more personal way on what it means to be a privileged white woman coming to terms with that privilege and acquiring some deeper understanding of the ways in which race, class, and gender difference is constructed." Gender was her first frontier: in addition to growing up in a patriarchal family and enduring sexist taunts during adolescence, she faced discomfiting teachers at the University of Chicago and was sexually assaulted by a member of her dissertation committee. Later, anti-Vietnam War activism and a leftist study group awakened her to a broader critique of America's social structure. In 1980, she began co-teaching classes on racism and sexism at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Despite some academic jargon, Rothenberg writes with refreshing candor: in one vignette, for example, she acknowledges that her family ties gave her the financial wherewithal to buy a home. She argues convincingly that a decision to "teach tolerance" in response to the sometimes hostile relations between college students ignores "the real differences in power and opportunity" that originally caused the divisions. And her criticism of the ways well-intentioned liberals "jealously guard" privilege for their own children is often potent, though her account of racism in New Jersey's educational "tracking" system leaves lingering questions about how and when such liberals should best make their sacrifice. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This book presents one woman's story of her life viewed through the lenses of gender, class, and race. Rothenberg examines the ways, both positive and negative, in which these three factors have shaped her experiences and opportunities. The purpose of this self-examination of privilege is to "uncover the forces that often render it invisible to those who benefit from it most." By turning the microscope on herself, she hopes to explore the unspoken privileges of the white middle class in the United States. Her previous work, the college text Race, Class and Gender in the United States, was one of the first contemporary texts on diversity and met with a firestorm of criticism, especially from the Right, which vilified her for starting the political correctness movement. Although she does shed some interesting light on the ways race, class, and gender influence life in the United States, sometimes the reader is left wondering whether she doesn't go overboard in her analysis. Recommended for academic libraries.-Roseanne Castellino, Arthur D. Little, Cambridge, MA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Washington Post Book World
"Rothenberg tells about growing up in New York when racial and sexual prejudice were the norm. The stories are moving."


The Women's Review of Books
"Rothenberg unflinchingly uses her own life to teach about the personal, political dangers of accepting the role of exception."


Publishers Weekly
"Rothenberg writes with refreshing candor."


Book Description
Life began for Paula Rothenberg in a privileged home in New York City, but it took her to the battlefields of the culture wars on behalf of the underprivileged. Now this veteran of that cultural clash examines the subtle and complex ways in which issues of race, class, and gender impact people's lives. A prominent figure in the creation of women's studies and multicultural studies as academic disciplines, Rothenberg is perhaps best known for her textbook Race, Class and Gender in the United States, which was widely attacked by conservatives defending traditional curricula. Now she shows how higher education upholds race, class, and gender bias, and, more generally, analyzes the ways in which many white people's unwavering belief in their own good intentions leaves them blind to their societal privilege and their role in perpetuating class difference. In this candid look at social and academic realities, Rothenberg shares incidents from her own life and the lives of family and friends to show how privilege is constructed and to reveal the forces that make us unaware of it. Through recollections of her childhood in an upper middle class Jewish family and her college years in the early sixties, she tells how she discovered that the world one takes for granted as "everyday life" is in fact riddled with privilege of which we are unaware. Reviewing the social upheaval of the seventies that challenged fundamental assumptions about gender roles, race relations, and even the nature of the family, Rothenberg tells how she gained a new understanding of what it meant to be an educator and activist. In sharing events surrounding the publication of Race, Class and Gender, she offers an inside look at the culture wars and brings her story into the '90s with a cogent discussion of hate speech and the "political correctness" controversy. Rothenberg recalls the early mobilization against sexual harassment and recounts what it was like to create one of the first feminist philosophy courses. She also offers a hard-hitting critique of current teaching practices and a response to critics of multi-culturalism and feminism--as well as a look at how de facto segregation continues in American education in the form of tracking. Both deeply personal and broadly social, this finely crafted memoir will capture the interest of anyone who cares about the future of education, race relations, feminism, and social justice.


From the Back Cover
"Paula Rothenberg is one courageous woman! First, her pioneering anthology integrated multiple levels of inequality. Now, Invisible Privilege illustrates how the personal is political in its most profound sense--intimately theorized, scrupulously honest, autobiographical without becoming solipsistically self-absorbed. A work both moving and mobilizing."--Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America "An unusual and amazingly useful analysis of the profound effects of 'invisible' privilege in a country with deep, complex, and often unacknowledged histories of gender, race, and class division. A powerful, insightful, and courageous memoir."--Chandra Talpade Mohanty, coeditor of Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures "This compelling memoir is an important contribution to the emerging field of whiteness studies. Like George Lipsitz's The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Rothenberg's autobiographical account illuminates and analyzes the ways in which white privilege has functioned in her own life and how readers might begin to understand the concept of the construction of 'whiteness' more broadly."--Beverly Guy-Sheftall, editor of Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought "This engaging memoir unflinchingly conveys the ambiguity and paradox that are inescapable when someone who has led a life of privilege devotes her life to the critique of race, class, and gender privilege. Rothenberg draws the reader into her story and allows us to experience firsthand the excitement of political and intellectual struggles that have transformed the academic landscape. The result is a memoir that is as important for its theoretical insights as for the window it provides into history."--Tom Digby, editor of Men Doing Feminism "Rothenberg reflectively describes her process of coming to see how dynamics of power and privilege have shaped key experiences of her life. The chapter on living in Montclair, New Jersey particularly shows how accumulated subtle inequities for some relate to substantial unearned advantage for others. A rare combination of self-reflection and systematic analysis."--Peggy McIntosh, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women


About the Author
Paula Rothenberg is a professor of philosophy and women's studies at The William Paterson University of New Jersey and director of the New Jersey Project on Inclusive Scholarship, Curriculum, and Teaching. In addition to her widely used texts in feminist and multicultural studies, she is also coeditor of Feminist Frameworks, Philosophy Now, and Ethics in Perspective.


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Author Biography: Paula Rothenberg is a professor of philosophy and women's studies at The William Paterson University of New Jersey and director of the New Jersey Project on Inclusive Scholarship, Curriculum, and Teaching. In addition to her widely used texts in feminist and multicultural studies, she is also coeditor of Feminist Frameworks, Philosophy Now, and Ethics in Perspective.


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