Ralph Remington with Marita Golden — 'Penetrating Whiteness' on white supremacy in America
Arts leader Remington and author Golden examine how white supremacy was built into America's institutional foundations and what dismantling it requires.
Why we picked this
Remington's structural analysis arrives at a moment when the conversation about race in America has become simultaneously more urgent and more contested.
Ralph Remington’s “Penetrating Whiteness” argues that white supremacy in America is not primarily a matter of individual prejudice but of institutional architecture — systems of law, education, housing, and policing that were designed to maintain racial hierarchy and continue to function as designed. The book examines how these structures were built, how they have adapted to survive successive reform movements, and what genuine dismantlement would require.
Marita Golden, whose own work spans memoir, fiction, and cultural criticism about Black American life, brings both intellectual depth and personal experience to the conversation. The Union Market venue and its location in northeast Washington provides appropriate grounding for a discussion about how race shapes the geography of American cities.
Free at Politics and Prose, Union Market.