Joe R. Feagin - Elite White Men Ruling: Who, What, When, Where, and How

This book examines the who, what, when, where, and how of elite-white-male dominance in U.S. and global society. In spite of their domination in the United States and globally that we document herein, elite white men have seldom been called out and analyzed as such. They have received little to no explicit attention with regard to systemic racism issues, as well as associated classism and sexism issues. Almost all public and scholarly discussions of U.S. racism fail to explicitly foreground elite white men or to focus specifically on how their interlocking racial, class, and gender statuses affect their globally powerful decision-making. Some of the power positions of these elite white men might seem obvious, but they are rarely analyzed for their extraordinary significance. While the principal focus of this book is on neglected research and policy questions about the elite-white-male role and dominance in the system of racial oppression in the United States and globally, because of their positioning at the top of several societal hierarchies the authors periodically address their role and dominance in other oppressive (e.g., class, gender) hierarchies.

Joe R. Feagin, Ella McFadden Professor and University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, does research on racism, sexism, and classism issues. He has served as Scholar-in-Residence at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and is the recipient of the American Sociological Associations W. E. B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award. He was the 19992000 president of the American Sociological Association.

Kimberley Ducey, an Associate Professor at the University of Winnipeg and a recent graduate of Canadas esteemed Universit McGill, does research on the historical and contemporary oppression of humans and other animals. Dr. Ducey is a Qubec Forces AVENIR recipient an award which aims to recognize, honor, and promote involvement in projects that contribute to the formation of conscious citizens.

A masterful deconstruction of the intersection of race, gender, and class inequality in the 21st century. A must-read book for anyone who cares about inequality.

Roy L. Brooks, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law,
University of San Diego School of Law

In Elite White Men Ruling Joe Feagin and Kimberley Ducey make an important, historically-grounded, contribution to our understanding of the intersectionality of class, racial, and gender domination in the United States that meticulously reveals the workings of the hugely consequential, but largely invisible, oligarchical rule of elite white men. Kudos to Professors Feagin and Ducey for both deepening our understanding of such oppression and for offering us a model of intersectional studies that not only casts a wide substantive net, but goes deep historically and conceptually in explaining both the specific workings of each oppressive system and their exponentially-increased power, as they feed off one another.

Noel A. Cazenave, Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut,
and author of Conceptualizing Racism: Breaking the
Chains of Racially Accommodative Language

With eloquence and compelling scholarship, Feagin and Ducey offer a searing, profound analysis of the elite-white-male dominance system, an analysis that is both breathtaking in scope and persuasive in intellectual depth. The book will undoubtedly be viewed as a sociological magnum opus of this century.

Edna B. Chun, Chief Learning Officer, HigherEd Talent, and co-author of
The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader

Feagin and Ducey pull back the curtain on abstract concepts of institutional power to show us the elite-white-male architects of inequality and oppression. In the Feagin tradition, the book does not hold back punches in examining and often naming the human sources of racism, sexism, and class exploitation.

Nestor Rodriguez, Professor of Sociology,
The University of Texas at Austin

Feagin and Ducey affirm the scholarship of a whole range of scholars from Du Bois and Cox to Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberl Crenshaw. Their forthright and concise analysis provides a fresh and insightful analysis that demonstrates the historical roots and contemporary contexts through which elite white males create, maintain, and reconstruct their hegemonic control over most major institutions within western society. Feagin and Ducey posit that this hegemonic control represents a major challenge to effective democracy. Such a democracy requires embracing the efficacy of human rights as an instrument of social change and justice. This would require a revolution, of spirit if not of society.

Rodney D. Coates, Professor of Global and Intercultural Studies,
Director of Black World Studies, Miami University

First published 2017

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Taylor & Francis

The right of Joe R. Feagin and Kimberley Ducey to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Feagin, Joe R., author. | Ducey, Kimberley, author.
Title: Elite white men ruling : who, what, when, where, and how /
Joe Feagin and Kimberley Ducey.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052990 | ISBN 9781138191815 (hardcover : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781138191822 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315640280
(alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Elite (Social sciences)United States. | Men,
WhiteUnited States. | Power (Social sciences)United States. |
DiscriminationUnited States. | United StatesPolitics and
government.
Classification: LCC HN90.E4 F43 2017 | DDC 305.5/20973dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052990

ISBN: 978-1-138-19181-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-19182-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-64028-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

In memory of Hernn Vera

We would like to thank Nol Cazenave, Edna Chun, Sean Elias, Melissa Ochoa Garza, Thaddeus Atzmon, Rachel Feinstein, Frank Ortega, Gabe Miller, Anthony Weems, Colin Goff, and Heidi Rimke for their comments and suggestions on various versions of this manuscript.

The central problem of the 21st century is elite white men. They long ago created what we term the elite-white-male dominance system