David Roediger

The pioneer labor historian

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The pioneer labor historian John Commons was not wrong when he wrote around World War One that exploiting and deepening such tensions as outpacing scientific management among U.S. innovations where bossing was concerned. Amidst the general miseries of proletarianization, workers also learned that one source of meager benefits and protections could lie in claiming a … Read more

In some ways Jews

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In some ways Jews and the various largely Catholic and often poor European immigrant groups were white, as the historian Tom Guglielmo has recently put it, on arrival. Where naturalization law was concerned, for example, ample precedents recognized their ability to become citizens, a right explicitly resting on their whiteness. But they also remained, as … Read more

The New Deal never

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The New Deal never rethought the draconian racist immigration restriction policies of the 20s, of course, but its electoral base rested significantly on ethnic voters, whose activism was both hemmed in and rewarded by the Democrats. Southern and Eastern Europeans were included as secondary leaders of the new industrial unions, and as entitled citizens qualified … Read more

As I wrote Working

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As I wrote Working toward Whiteness, I came to see one historic task on the New Deal – and one in which it succeeded – as the fostering of fuller U.S. citizenship among immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and their kids. But this very achievement separated poorer and often despised immigrant workers from Europe … Read more

Instead of accepting what

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Instead of accepting what James Baldwin called the lie of whiteness, many people in lots of different fields and movement activities have tried to productively make it into a problem. When did (some) people come to define themselves as white? In what conditions? How does the lie of whiteness get reproduced? What are its costs … Read more

The areas in which

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The areas in which I teach are working-class history and African-American Studies and at its best the critical study of whiteness often grows out of those areas. The critical examination of whiteness, academic and not, simply involves the effort to break through the illusion that whiteness is natural, biological, normal, and not crying out for … Read more