The Enigma of Diversity: The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice. By Ellen Berrey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. 352. $80.00 (cloth) $27.50 (paper)
toward most African Americans. I imagine that some might balk at Jung's conclusion that most people simply do not care about real life suffering at the hands of racism. But if we take Jung's analysis to be truly sociological, rather than pop psychoanalytic, then the supposed principle of racial equality is not being acted upon. It is, as Jungwrites, "a principle without a principle, which is to say not a principle at all" (p. 167) I was struck by the candor of Beneath the Surface of White Supremacy, alongside an ease of reading that refused to sacrifice analytic sophistication. I consider the book an excellent example of hard nosed sociology one that embodies Charles Lemert's admonition (Social Things [Rowman Littlefield, 2012] p. 224) that, "living the sociological life makes you a rude, improper guest who crashes someone else's well planned party." Indeed, the soiree of mainstream American sociology is in need of this party crashing book that highlights an unabashed analysis of a reality properly defined as "white supremacy." The text challenges the "dominant's tacit nonrecognition of subaltern dissent" (p. 175) in both our discipline and far beyond the ivory tower.