The White Racial Frame Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing

Introduction; 1. The White Racial Frame;  2. Building the Racist Foundation: Colonialism, Genocide, and Slavery; 3. Creating a White Racial Frame: The First Century; 4. Extending the White Frame: The Eighteenth Century to the Twentieth Century; 5. The Contemporary White Racial Frame; 6. The Frame in Everyday Operation; 7. The Frame in Institutional Operation: Bureaucratization of Oppression; 8. Counter-Framing: Americans of Color; 9. Toward a Truly Multiracial Democracy: Thinking and Acting Outside the White Frame; Suggestions for Further Reading

Biography

Joe R. Feagin is a University Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) at Texas A&M University. Feagin has conducted extensive research on systemic racism issues for more than sixty years and has served as a Scholar-in-Residence at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has authored or co-authored 81 scholarly books and more than 230 scholarly articles in his research areas, and one book (Ghetto Revolts) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His major books include Systemic Racism (2006), Elite White Men Ruling (with Kimberley Ducey, 2017), and Antiblackness (with Philip Ewell, 2026).

“In this revised and expanded edition of The White Racial Frame, Professor Feagin, the world’s leading scholar of systemic racism, further develops and expands that powerful analytical concept. With its cogent historical and contemporary examples of the workings of both the white racial frame, and the counter-framing of the racially oppressed, this revised edition of The White Racial Frame is essential reading for those who would like to better understand and challenge white racial oppression.”

Noel A. Cazenave, Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut

“The brilliant and prolific Joe Feagin illustrates how systemic racism operates, providing both historical and up-to-the-minute analyses of the development and continued power of the ‘white racial frame.’  Drawing on a wide array of interdisciplinary research, the book provides a roadmap of why we are where we are and is critical reading for scholars, students, and anyone who wants to understand racism in the United States.”

Joya Misra, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“How might we understand 250 years of racism in the US? In this substantially revised edition of The White Racial Frame, renowned sociologist Joe Feagin expands his influential theory of systemic racism by examining how the white racial frame continues to shape American institutions, public policy, popular culture, and everyday life through deeply embedded racial narratives, emotions, and assumptions. A new concluding chapter opens our eyes to how we might explore a truly multiracial democracy through education, coalition building, digital activism, reparative justice, and collective action. A must read for any racism scholar.”

David G. Embrick, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies; Director of Research and Community Engagement; University of Connecticut

"In this new edition of his classic book, The White Racial Frame, Joe Feagin continues his 60 year history of creating cutting-edge research on systemic racism. Feagin shows how centuries of white supremacy have contributed to social and cognitive structures that shape American life—including emergent technologies such as artificial intelligence. This essential book remains a touchstone for scholars of race and ethnicity who want to understand the stunning tenacity, and ongoing brutality, of American racism."

Victor Ray is the F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa. His first book is On Critical Race Theory: Why it Matters & Why You Should Care (2023).