Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression

National Youth Council of Ireland, 3 Montague Street, Dublin 2, Ireland; email: niamh.mccrea@nyci.ie Historical in scope, trenchant in tone, Feagin’s latest contribution to the literature on racism sets out to develop a sociological theory of oppression through which racial-ethnic relationships and events in the USA can be interpreted. Feagin’s primary focus is the subjugation of African Americans from the slavery era to the present. His theory argues that white-on-black racism was one of the principal bedrocks upon which the USA was founded, engendering an archetypal system of white privilege that has been sustained to this day and that manifests itself in every major societal institution. The centrality of white-on-black oppression to his conceptualization of racism in the USA informs the dichotomous structure of the book, which is divided into chapters alternately sub-titled, ‘Through the Eyes of African Americans’ and ‘Through the Eyes of White Americans,’…