THE WHITE BONUS

When we talk about racism, we usually talk about what's been denied to people of color. But what if we started measuring what white people get? In THE WHITE BONUS, Tracie McMillan will combine compelling memoir, top-notch original reporting, and rigorous policy research to measure the cash value of being white in America.

THE WHITE BONUS will follow three generations of Tracie's family over six chapters, tracking the sources of their wealth. That personal narrative tethers a broader investigation into the laws and norms that gave white Americans more opportunity than minorities. Tracie then measures their cumulative material effect on her own life. Then, to expand beyond her own family, Tracie alternates her story with single-chapter profiles tracking the "white bonus" of five other subjects of various classes and places, which showcase an ecosystem of institutions and practices that are supposed to treat all Americans the same but usually only benefit whites.

To date, there has not been a book that addresses white working class experience while engaging directly with race, nor one that takes the amorphous problem of racial privilege and quantifies it. THE WHITE BONUS combines these approaches, and prompts an uncomfortable but compelling question: Is this fair? And if it is not, what can we do about it?

Tracie McMillan's first book, The American Way of Eating (Scribner, 2012), was widely celebrated for the depth of its reporting and investigative work. In addition, Tracie is an established journalist, publishing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Mother Jones and Food & Wine.