How did America become a nation obsessed with race? That’s the fundamental question asked in the new book “A Time for Change: How White Supremacy Ideology Harms All Americans” by Punta Gorda-based author and lecturer Dr. Martha Bireda.
A Time for Change explores America’s beginnings as a “class-based” society, the creation of America’s racial consciousness through the invention of the social construction of “whiteness,” and the ways in which white supremacist ideology has been infused, reinforced and perpetuated in the collective American mind and culture through the utilization of stereotypical images of blacks.
Dr. Bireda says the purpose of her new book is to explore how the ideology of white supremacy has done immeasurable damage to all Americans, whites as well as blacks and other persons of color. And, she argues, racial healing in the U.S. can only occur through a true examination of America’s history, as well as individual and collective responsibility and efforts to undo over 300 years of racist cultural conditioning.
Dr. Martha Bireda is also the Director of the Blanchard House Museum of African American History and Culture in Punta Gorda.
