White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of "Post-Racial" Higher Education Nolan L. Cabrera (review)

Nolan Cabrera's central goals with the book are (a) to explore White supremacy and White immunity in higher education and (b) to explore how the views and attitudes of White male undergraduate students "lead to the marginalization of Students of Color on college campuses and what can be done to transform this social structure/practice" (p. 16). Cabrera conducted interviews with 29 White men students between 2007 and 2008 at Southwestern University (a public R1 in the Southwest US, population of 40,000) and Western University (a selective R1 on the US West Coast with a population of 40,000).

What sets Cabrera's book apart from recent texts about race/racism and higher education (Arday & Mirza, 2018; Park, 2018; Picca & Feagin, 2007) is that he specifically ties the study of Whiteness to higher education, which has been lacking in higher education literature (Cabrera, Franklin, & Watson, 2016). Cabrera names this deficiency in the research as a problem early on in his text by stating that without it we focus on an "effect with no cause" (p. 3), in other words we cannot understand marginalization if no one is doing the marginalizing (Cabrera et al., 2016). Also, Cabrera deliberately examines the convergence of Whiteness and men; that is to say, Cabrera explores the conundrum of White men who normally did not hold a marginalized identity yet believed themselves to be the true victims of contemporary racism. Another distinction of Cabrera's book is that he repeatedly reminds the reader that his work should not be interpreted as centering/ recentering Whiteness in the discourse about power, race, and racism, but rather this book is really about how attitudes and opinions of White men lead to marginalization of Students of Color on campus; or as Cabrera articulates, his book is "intended to be an analysis of Whiteness at the service of [emphasis added] Students of Color" (p. 16).

White Guys on Campus is composed of eight chapters that outline major themes/ findings from Cabrera's research project. In chapter 1, he offers that the absence of White racial analysis renders the racial justice discourse incomplete. Further, he introduces terminology that informs the rest of the book. For example, Cabrera offers White immunity as an alternative/addition that gives nuance to the more widely used White privilege. White immunity, Cabrera argues, is the more accurate term because White privilege "implies an elevation of White people when in fact it is more about the decreased life chances of People of Color" (p. 13), and how White people are inoculated from virtually all types of racial discrimination.

In chapter 2 the narratives offer familiar deflections and derailments to meaningful racial conversation and dialogue; however, Cabrera provides insightful analysis and weaves together connections across participant narratives to help illuminate the pathology of thought that renders racism as "not mattering" in contemporary times (in the participants' views). In chapter 3, participants suggest that if racism does exist, that White men are the true victims of it. The men feel unfairly treated as a result of political correctness and virtually any form of racial consciousness (including policies focused on equity/justice both on campus and nationally). Unironically, none of the participants pinpoint specific examples or instances that informed their perspectives, rather they indicated they just "feel" that way.

In chapter 4 Cabrera examines the contradiction around White men seeing racism as having no real impact on People of Color—and race consciousness as being racist towards Whites—while also opining that racially minoritized folks are overly sensitive and that racial jokes are harmless. In chapter 5, participants articulated their displeasures and (mis)perceptions about affirmative action: perceptions that were informed by deeply held sincere fictions (Feagin & O'Brien as cited in White Guys on Campus). Cabrera offers these views as the basis of the antiwhite racism paranoia that several participants conveyed during...