Author Meets Critic Public Talk: Gratuitous Angst in White America: A Theory of Whiteness and Crime by Deena A. Isom

Gratuitous Angst in White America provides important insight into the intersections of white fragility and male fragility as they relate to criminality. Isom’s engagement with multiple theories emphasizes the creation of normative racial categories across space and time, while filling gaps related to the role of whiteness in matters related to crime and the decreased likelihood of entanglement with the criminal legal system. In this way, Isom furthers our understanding of what constitutes as crime, who is a criminal, and who deserves to be punished by considering these questions through the lens of whiteness and white privilege.