{"id":2685491,"date":"2026-10-16T08:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnational-book-foundation-honors-book-about-white-paint-being-racist\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:46:44","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnational-book-foundation-honors-book-about-white-paint-being-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnational-book-foundation-honors-book-about-white-paint-being-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"National Book Award Honors Book About White Paint Being Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnational-book-foundation-honors-book-about-white-paint-being-racist%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2685491&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses Wendy S. Walters\u2019 upcoming nonfiction book, *Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint*, which controversially claims that white paint is inherently racist and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/twitter-employees-triggered-by-elon-musk-saying-all-lives-matter\/\" title=\"Twitter Employees Triggered by Elon Musk Saying &quot;All Lives Matter&quot;\">symbolizes white supremacy<\/a>. Walters, a black professor and poet, argues that white paint is frequently enough linked to systems of erasure, exclusion, and violence, citing examples like its use to vandalize LGBTQ+ symbols and cultural sites. The book also explores how white paint is involved in oppressive practices such as torture chambers and regimes&#8217; propaganda tools. Critics highlight the book&#8217;s unusual focus and view it as a somewhat paranoid critique that overinterprets the symbolism of white paint, while noting the absurdity of government-funded studies financed to examine its alleged racial connotations. the article portrays the work as a hyperbolic,ideological critique that veers into the realm of crankery,provoking skepticism about its claims and motivations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The prestigious National Book Awards have many famous and acclaimed past winners, from Don DeLillo\u2019s <em>White Noise<\/em> in 1985 to Alice Walker\u2019s <em>The Color Purple<\/em> in 1983. Of those previous victors, only the latter could be allowed to win in 2026, as the color white is now officially racist.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalbook.org\/awards-prizes\/national-book-awards-2026\/?cat=nonfiction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">longlist<\/a> for the National Book Foundation\u2019s annual awards was announced last month, with one of\u00a0the nominated nonfiction titles, <a href=\"https:\/\/walterspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wendy S. Walters<\/a>\u2019 <em>Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint<\/em>,\u00a0being published this week by Simon &#038; Schuster. The book\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/A-Dead-White\/Wendy-S-Walters\/9781982178550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blurb<\/a> describes it as an \u201cimpassioned, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/travis-kelce-signs-on-as-producer-for-movie-made-using-bidens-green-energy-tax-credits-report\/\" title=\"Travis Kelce joins as producer for film funded by Biden&#039;s green energy tax credits\">boundary-pushing work<\/a> of criticism traversing an array of subjects\u201d \u2014 but mainly the single, highly niche subject of white paint and why it is incredibly racist.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Beyond the Pale<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The author is a black Columbia University writing professor and poet who has previously written books \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sarabandebooks.org\/all-titles\/p\/multiplydivide-wendy-s-walters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">imagining<\/a> a black takeover of Norway\u201d (through immigration, perhaps?). She first realized white paint was racist some years ago after <a href=\"https:\/\/arts.columbia.edu\/news\/professor-wendy-walters-wins-2020-creative-capital-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">becoming<\/a> absolutely disgusted by \u201cthe frequency with which the walls of educational spaces are painted in white\u201d as opposed to in luminous pink zig-zags with iridescent yellow polka-dots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to identify a material,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/A-Dead-White\/Wendy-S-Walters\/9781982178550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">continues<\/a> the PR material, that \u201chas received less critical examination than white paint.\u201d (Maybe real academics were too busy studying materials like plutonium, graphene, silicon, or insulin.)<\/p>\n<p>A blanconormative society, the authoress tells us, pretends that white paint is \u201cneutral,\u201d that it \u201chas no signifiers,\u201d and therefore is the natural background to national life across America,  as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-to-raise-sane-kids-when-leaving-public-schools-is-not-an-easy-option\/\" title=\"How To Raise Sane Kids When Leaving Public Schools Is Not An Easy Option\">white-skinned people<\/a> were supposed to be, socially speaking, in the recent past. On the other hand, whenever Walters wishes to make the opposite argument, suddenly white paint morphs and becomes full of positive qualities like \u201ccalmness, \u201ccleanliness,\u201d and \u201cpurity.\u201d She prejudicially imagines these qualities as shared by the white people who mixed and then daubed the paint.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K18moUOy74c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reasons<\/a> for her \u201cgenuine and visceral dislike of white paint,\u201d \u201ca feeling\u201d she \u201cat times\u201d finds \u201coverwhelming,\u201d are predictably strange. It turns out white paint, like Wite-Out or Liquid Paper, operates as an agent of white supremacy, insinuating itself \u00a0\u201cinto systems of erasure, exclusion, violence, and the masking of power in the social and natural world,\u201d as when vandals had used white paint to deface various monuments to diversity:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>White supremacists splattered white <em>paint at the entrance to the Rothko<\/em> <em>Chapel in Houston, Texas, a much-beloved<\/em> <em>non-sectarian site of cultural and artistic significance to the community<\/em> <em>in which it resides. The public outcry<\/em> <em>extended across the world. \u2026<\/em> <em>A rainbow crosswalk affirming the<\/em> <em>welcome of LGBTQIA+<\/em> <em>persons in Woodstock, New Brunswick,<\/em> <em>Canada, was painted over with white paint, rectangle by rectangle, and a huge splatter of white paint was left in the center to emphasize the act of intolerance.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Walters got an actual grant from the Creative Capital Foundation to write this thing. The award was <a href=\"https:\/\/arts.columbia.edu\/news\/professor-wendy-walters-wins-2020-creative-capital-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> as \u201clucrative,\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/creative-capital.org\/creative-capital-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Creative Capital grants<\/a> can be up to $50,000. The grant was awarded way back in 2020. This means it must have taken her something like <em>six years<\/em> to write her screed about why white is the natural color of the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/archidose.substack.com\/p\/an-attack-on-white-paint\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pre-publication reviews<\/a>, the book isn\u2019t <em>entirely<\/em> about why white paint is racist; it also deals with how the hue is complicit in acts of human rights abuse of all kinds. White is the natural color of torture chambers. Totalitarian regimes purportedly employ it in \u201cwhite room torture,\u201d locking victims inside a room painted all-white, with all-white furnishings and all-white clothing, and feeding them all-white foods to produce states of severe psychosis. (It is rumored some victims even begin to think they are real university professors, engaged in real academic disciplines.)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Hue and Crybaby<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Inadvertently amusing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ScribnerBooks\/videos\/take-a-look-around-you-right-now-are-you-surrounded-by-white-wallsits-hard-to-id\/1041506375183492\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">promotional videos<\/a> make Walters\u2019 book sound like a kind of ultra-bizarre horror film, released just in time for Halloween:<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When the paint starts speaking to you, it\u2019s time to seek professional help. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K18moUOy74c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">old videos<\/a> taken from the period of the book\u2019s gestation, Professor Walters sounds like she needs it:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>The stakes of <\/em>\u201cA Dead White\u201d<em> are high,<\/em> <em>life and death, containment or<\/em> <em>dispersal, regression or progress, forgetting and remembering. The stories of loss will gather in magnitude. My argument comes from a genuine and visceral dislike of white paint, a feeling that is at times overwhelming for<\/em> <em>me, and according to the estimations of others I know, a reaction that is possibly irrational.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>More than \u201cirrational,\u201d Walters comes across as paranoid, seeing things in white paint that clearly are not there \u2014 and she\u2019d like to make her readers paranoid and start seeing them alongside her, too:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I<em> hope to encourage<\/em> <em>the reader to think about how practices<\/em> <em>of decoration and adornment might allude<\/em> <em>to hidden narratives of power \u2026 whether<\/em> <em>or not they recognize them as being so. \u2026<\/em> <em>I have always been interested in<\/em> <em>systems, especially invisible ones, and<\/em> <em>the way that they shape our lives.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But maybe the reason why certain \u201csystems\u201d of \u201cpower\u201d are invisible is that they\u2019re not really there at all?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Paint a False Picture<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Walters\u2019 publishers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/A-Dead-White\/Wendy-S-Walters\/9781982178550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">describe<\/a> her work as an \u201cutterly fresh work of cultural criticism,\u201d but this is not so. There have been several <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/08\/us-news\/woke-white-women-melt-down-over-pantones-racist-color-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous attempts<\/a> to blacken white paint\u2019s reputation, most notably in Norway where, in 2023, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/racist-white-paint\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> the government <a href=\"https:\/\/dailysceptic.org\/2023\/01\/13\/is-white-paint-racist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">had spent<\/a> around a million dollars\u2019 worth of taxpayer cash funding a multi-year pseudo-academic study, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tio2project.com\/norwhite?fbclid=IwAR1UO5MBNfxV6JCDSiMMEMs_tkIxtlQqVlEBawD9k5Zuq6sngP001p9CINI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Norway Made the World Whiter<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cNorWhite\u201d for short. This <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/02\/09\/even-white-paint-is-racist-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a> that (perhaps to compensate for having no African or Asian colonies) the country had invented an industrial process for manufacturing special ultra-bright and hard-wearing brands of white paints, which had been used to \u201ccolonize\u201d the planet\u2019s walls instead.    <\/p>\n<p>The absurdly expensive Norwegian state-backed study in itself reveals the true problem here. It is not so much that crank people will insist upon writing crank books. People have always done that. It is more that supposedly sane persons in positions of authority now actively <em>encourage<\/em> and <em>fund<\/em> people to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The irony of all this is, of course, that Wendy S. Walters\u2019 own award-nominated crank book is, quite hypocritically, itself printed upon <em>white<\/em> paper. Utilizing her own pretentious mode of identitarian racial discourse, I could perhaps pen a text of my own, hypothesizing that the intimidatingly vast expanse of her white written page disgracefully privileges whiteness over blackness \u2014 before then advocating that, in this post-George Floyd era, we can turn this oppressive surface appearance around by observing that all the actual <em>meaning<\/em> resides in the blackness of the printed word, thereby redeeming it completely.<\/p>\n<p>There. That should do. Can I have my National Book Award and $50,000 Creative Capital Award now, please?<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Steven Tucker is a U.K.-based writer whose work appears regularly on both sides of the Atlantic. His latest book is &#8220;Hitler\u2019s and Stalin\u2019s Misuse of Science.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Book Awards winners include DeLillo and Walker; white now deemed racist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1354,"featured_media":2685492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Copy-of-Untitled-6.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7331,19272,5069],"class_list":["post-2685491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-art","tag-literature","tag-race"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Copy-of-Untitled-6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2685500,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685491\/revisions\/2685500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2685492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}