The Enduring, Invisible, and Ubiquitous Centrality of Whiteness

An up-front, close, and fresh examination of the impact of whiteness and how it contributes to our troubled race relationships, this book posits that whiteness is a pervasive ideology that is rarely overtly identified or examined, although it has profound effects on race relationships in therapy and beyond. Being intentional about naming, deconstructing, and dismantling whiteness is a precursor to responding effectively to the racial reckoning of our society and improving race relationships, addressing systemic bias, and moving toward the creation of a more racially just world.

Contributors to the volume are from different backgrounds and trainings, and write on such topics as: the vicious cycle of white centrality; being Black in a world of whiteness; undoing internalized white supremacy; intersectionality and the contradictions of a white, Jewish identity; becoming an antiracist leader; and building an antiracist clinical practice.

About the Author :
Kenneth V. Hardy, PhD, is President of the Eikenberg Academy for Social Justice and Clinical and Organizational Consultant for the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in NYC. Dr. Hardy provides workshops, training, and consultations to a host of organizations and institutions throughout the United States and abroad. He is a former Professor of Family Therapy at both Syracuse University, NY, and Drexel University, PA. He is the author of Racial Trauma: Clinical Strategies and Techniques for Healing Invisible Wounds, and The Enduring, Invisible, and Ubiquitous Centrality of Whiteness, both from W. W. Norton. He is also co-author of Culturally Sensitive Supervision; Promoting Culturally Sensitive Supervision; and Revisioning Family Therapy.

Review :
Dr. Kenneth Hardy's book, The Centrality of Whiteness, is shocking, provocative, clear, inspiring, and personal. It is deeply touching as well as disturbing in a most blessed way, and it absolutely achieves its purpose: the demystification of whiteness. Hardy has brought together a strong, broad, clear and very astute group of authors to help challenge us on this topic, which is so essential to our very survival. This is the book we have been needing to help us work together to cultivate a society where multiple ideologies can coexist without domination, marginalization, annihilation, or indoctrination.--Monica McGoldrick, Ph.D., Director of the Multicultural Family Institute in Highland Park, NJ, author of Genograms