Racism in the Neoliberal Era

"Randolph Hohle provides great insight into how elite white oligopoly capitalists (aka neoliberals) use white-racist framing to con white Americans into accepting large-scale austerity and privatization schemes (public = black/bad, private = white/good) that maintain or increase racial and class inequalities. Since the 1960s civil rights movement, this white male elite has thereby schemed to weaken meaningful racial desegregation and firmly maintain their centuries-old control over US society."

Joe Feagin, Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University, and author of Racist America (5th ed, 2025)

"Randolph Holhe’s Racism in the Neoliberal Era is a terrifically updated version of his important argument. Too often, conversations about racial discrimination are separate from conversations about the rise of neoliberalism. Hohle has been at the forefront of blending these two conversations in rigorous and imaginative ways. This volume is an excellent contribution to sociology, theory, and most of all the current political moment."

Jason Hackworth, Professor of Geography, University of Toronto

"Racism in the Neoliberal Era delves into how systemic racism has shaped American politics and economics, especially through the lens of neoliberalism. Randy Hohle paints a vivid picture of how elite white interests have used racism to sustain power, dividing public and private life along racial lines. With sharp insight and engaging prose, the book explores how policies in welfare, education, and policing continue to fuel these divides, while challenging what lies beyond neoliberalism. In an era marked by rising fascism, this timely work powerfully argues that racism is not just a social issue, but a driving force in American society, rooted in the workings of gangster neoliberal capitalism."

Henry A. Giroux, Chair Professor of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University

"In the second edition of Racism in the Neoliberal Era, Randy Hohle argues convincingly the connections between racism, culture, neoliberal ideology, and political economy in the US continue to evolve, yet institutional and systemic structures are continually shifting in support of elite white power in a second gilded age. Hohle’s work is a refreshing and unique take on an old problem, but he offers new well thought solutions, which students, academics, and informed readers will appreciate."

Geoffrey L. Wood, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Applied Research (CFAR), University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg

“What role does racism play in shaping the US political economy? Randy Hohle’s accessible discussion of the interplay of race, class formation, and state policy offers a clear answer to that important question. Hohle provides an extensive and novel treatment of how racism operated in the post-WWII Jim Crow era, was altered by the civil rights movement only to take on a new form in shaping the emergence of the neoliberal formation. A comparative discussion of alternative futures—the radical rightwing blueprint in Project 2025 or the Green New Deal—sheds light on racism’s dynamic in the current crisis.”

Larry Isaac is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Sociology & Political Economy at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of award-winning research on capital-labor contestation and the US civil rights movement.