Abolition Of White Democracy
by Joel Olson

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Book Reviews of Abolition Of White Democracy

Book Review: Exposing the racist history of U.S. democracy -- in order to build a more equitable democracy for the future
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Abolition Of White Democracy

Joel Olson contends that, given the history of slavery and segregation in the United States, American citizenship is a form of racial privilege in which whites are equal to each other but superior to everyone else. In Olson?s analysis we see how the tension in this equation produces a passive form of democracy that discourages extensive participation in politics because it treats citizenship as an identity to possess rather than as a source of empowerment. Olson traces this tension and its disenfranchising effects from the colonial era to our own, demonstrating how, after the civil rights movement, whiteness has become less a form of standing and more a norm that cements white advantages in the ordinary operations of modern society.

To break this pattern, Olson suggests an "abolitionist-democratic" political theory that makes the fight against racial discrimination a prerequisite for expanding democratic participation. Joel Olson is assistant professor of political science at Northern Arizona University.

Civil Rights & Liberties Books

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