What happens when people in societies stratified by race refuse to accept the privileges inherent in whiteness? What difference does it make when whites act in a manner that contradicts their designated racial identity? Out of Whiteness considers these questions and argues passionately for an imaginative and radical politics against all forms of racism.

Vron Ware and Les Back look at key points in recent American and British culture where the "color line" has been blurred. Through probing accounts of racial masquerades in popular literature, the growth of the white power music scene on the Internet, the meteoric rise of big band jazz during the Second World War, and the pivotal role of white session players in crafting rhythm and blues classics by black artists, Ware and Back upset the idea of race as a symbol of inherent human attributes. Their book gives us a timely reckoning of the forces that continue to make people "white," and reveals to us the polyglot potential of identities and cultures.

Vron Ware is a lecturer in sociology and in women's and gender studies at Yale University. She is the author of Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism, and History.

Les Back teaches sociology and urban studies at Goldsmiths College University of London. He is the author of New Ethnicities, Multiple Racisms: Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives.