The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a conversation

WEAPONIZED WHITENESS: THE CONSTRUCTIONS AND DECONSTRUCTIONS OF WHITE IDENTITY POLITICS

Thursday, January 26, 2023, 7 pm

Register here to join this event on Zoom.

Weaponized Whiteness by Fran Shor interrogates the meanings and implications of white supremacy and, more specifically, white identity politics from historical and sociological perspectives. By analyzing the constructions and deconstructions of white identity politics throughout U.S. history and up through the present, these collected essays provide insight into the deep roots and resonances of white identity politics and the challenges that have emerged, in particular, since the 1960s. Join us for a conversation between author Fran Shor and reader/discussants Lisa Albrecht, Kafui Attoh, Michael Goldfield, and Michael Honey.

Fran Shor is an Emeritus Professor of History at Wayne State University. He is the author of five non-fiction books, the most recent being SOUPY SALES AND THE DETROIT EXPERIENCE: MANUFACTURING A TELEVISION PERSONALITY (Cambridge Scholars 2021), WEAPONIZED WHITENESS (Haymarket 2020), and a novel set in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown, PASSAGES OF REBELLION (Outskirts 2020). Fran taught for many years at Wayne State University and has been a long-time peace and justice activist, serving on the Boards of Peace Action and Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, and the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metropolitan Detroit.

Kafui Attoh is an Associate Professor of Labor ad Urban Studies at the City University of New York. He received his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D in Geography from Syracuse University. His research has focused on the role of transit within the political economy of cities, the economic impact of limited access to transportation on disadvantaged communities, and 3) the role of urban social movements (including the labor movement) in shaping mass transit policy. He is the author of RIGHT IN TRANSIT: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY IN CALIFORNIA’S EAST BAY (University of Georgia Press 2019).

Lisa Albrecht is Professor Emerita in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, where she taught for many years. Lisa holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has long worked at the intersections of whiteness studies and gender studies. Her publications include BRIDGES OF POWER: WOMEN’S MULTICULTURAL ALLIANCES (with Rose Brewer, 1990), THE CRITICAL CLASSROOM: EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION AND MOVEMENT BUILDING (with Rose Brewer and Wendy Katz-Fishman, 2007).

Michael Goldfield is a long-time labor and civil rights activist and is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Wayne State University. He is the author of THE DECLINE OF ORGANIZED LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES (1987), THE COLOR OF POLITICS: RACE AND THE MAINSPRINGS OF AMERICAN POLITICS (1997), and THE SOUTHERN KEY: CLASS, RACE AND RADICALISM IN THE 1930S AND 1940S (2022). ESFL was happy to host a conversation about THE SOUTHERN KEY in May 2021 (see video: https://youtu.be/sYpgiFYLAo8)

Michael Honey is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Washington-Tacoma. Renowned for his work teaching the music of the civil rights, anti-apartheid, and labor movements, he is also the author of SOUTHERN LABOR AND BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS (1993), BLACK WORKERS REMEMBER: AN ORAL HISTORY OF SEGREGATION, UNIONISM, AND THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE (2002), GOING DOWN JERICHO ROAD: THE MEMPHIS STRIKE, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.,’S LAST CAMPAIGN (2008), “ALL LABOR HAS DIGNITY”: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (2012), TO THE PROMISED LAN: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE FIGHT FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE (2019).

Join us for what will surely be a lively conversation, and plan to participate yourself.

[email protected] and 651-207-4926

free and open to all