July 14, 2006

Whiteness and Its Complications

By DAVID R. ROEDIGER

The theologian Thandeka tells of being faced with a daunting request during her first meal with a woman she had recently met. The new acquaintance, a descendant of the New England elite, urgently wanted to know "what it felt like to be black." Trusting in the sincerity and openness of her questioner, but knowing that racial understanding had to also involve self-knowledge, Thandeka proposed that the woman play the "race game" before the two met again. The game, as described in Thandeka's

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