The Black Nation has struggled forward through brutal oppression only to find its very existence denied-- and not only by the white supremacist ruling class of the US, but by various leftists as well. A good place to go deeper into this topic is the work of Harry Haywood, the Black Communist who did more than anyone else to frame a scientific analysis of the Nation.

Any worthwhile overview of white privilege theory must offer all respect to Ted Allen. The dedication to TCoP starts "Ted Allen, whose groundbreaking work on white privilege [helped] lay the foundation for the analysis in these pages." The intriguing online magazine, Cultural Logic (subtitled "an electronic journal of marxist theory and practice") has a noteworthy stash of Ted's writings. Check their 2005 and 2006 issues.

For many people, the first exposure to a systematic critique of white privilege came with a reading of Peggy McIntosh's article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack."  Right up front, she explains, "I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious." McIntosh then proceeds to itemize the contents of the knapsack and raises questions about what to do about it. Rather than go to a single site at which to read or download it, this link will give an idea you just how influential her contribution has been.

Uneasiness is a frequent response to the whole concept of Whiteness Studies (even when it is modified to Critical Whiteness Studies), and some folks have made a start on critiquing it.  That said, Whiteness Studies is the umbrella under which a lot of theoretical work concerning the workings of white supremacy and white privilege is going on. The website Whiteness Studies: Deconstructing (the) Race, run by Professor Gregory S. Jay of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has a big fat chunk of resources and links that cover much of the field today.

In a well known, and well worth reading, review article published in 2002 (linked from the Whiteness Studies website above), Professor Peter Kolchin exclaims "Suddenly whiteness studies are everywhere." Damn skippy, and the underbrush has gotten much thicker in the five years since. The most extensive bibliography thus far is the ongoing one produced by the Critical Whiteness Study Group associated with scholar and author David Roediger (his own work critiqued in an article by Ted Allen, available at the Cultural Logic website above). Most regrettably, it is just a listing and not an annotated bibliography, but it is nonetheless the best compendium of works on white privilege available. And it's online, free.

On January 9, 2007, Nelson Hawkins, proprietor of a blog named Pottawatomie Creek (motto: "Sabering white-supremacist patriarchal capitalism and its running dogs since 1856"--for real), issued a call for the first annual Blogging Against White Supremacy Day, to take place on the MLK Holiday a week later. The call was taken up by a dozen or so left bloggers, several of whom produced very interesting articles. The whole thing can be found directly, or through links, at Hawkins' site, on the home page or in the January 2007 archives.

The link between the personal and the political, making sense of being white while knowing that whiteness is a socially constructed category with no real meaning other than "possessing the right to oppress people of color" is the special bailiwick of several impressive young white anti-racist activists. Tim Wise is one of them and this compilation of his essays from Z Magazine is a good introduction to a worldview that consciously resists white privilege.

One of the "newer" ideas in TCoP is the concept of intersectionality, the common-sense (once somebody lays it out) understanding that the oppressions visited upon the majority by the capitalist system are not discrete phenomena, conveniently rankable as to victimization or suffering. They are a part of an intertwined lived reality and must be dealt with as such if we want to make revolution in this country, and if we want to make that revolution worth the sacrifices it will take. This pamphlet lays out some important insights into fighting for and building socialism in the 21st Century.