Book Review: Roots of racism: The politics of White supremacy in the US and Europe

Abstract

“Queer Performativity: Henry James’ Art of the Novel,” which first guided Love to an in-depth study of Erving Goffman’s Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Love also examines Laud Humphrey’s Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, which would violate many of the best practices of today’s Institutional Review Boards. Love notes that one of Goffman’s main contributions to queer theory is that the marginalization of homosexuals is the result of social constructs rather than innate unnatural desires, a contribution that has influenced Eve Sedgwick, Judith Butler, and other queer theorists who understand queer identity as performance. Although sometimes difficult to absorb, this book has important implications for social work and social work education. First, it is important to find common ground in scholarship and advocacy. For example, Love notes that there is not just a crisis within the humanities, but there is a crisis within higher education in general. Second, it is important to do coalition building without enforcing false universalisms, equivalences, and imperialism. Finally, Love raises but does not address, the question of whether stigma can have a transformational effect. This question may be best addressed by those in the field of social work and social work education, those grounded in both theory and praxis, and those working inside and outside of the academy.