Journal of Sociolinguistics 13/5, 2009: 689–718 BOOK REVIEWS JANE H. HILL. The Everyday Language of White Racism (Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture Series). Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell. 2008. 224 pp. Pb (9781405184533) £19.99/€25.00. Reviewed by CRISTIAN TILEAG ˘ A Some remarkable books on racism and the language of racism have been written in social sciences and communication over the years: Michael Billig’s Fascists; Teun van Dijk’s Communicating Racism and Elite Discourse and Racism; Philomena Essed’s Understanding Everyday Racism; and Margaret Wetherell and Jonathan Potter’s Mapping the Language of Racism. Jane H. Hill’s The Everyday Language of White Racism is one of them and in every way remarkable. By and large, it bears the same message. Racism is not rooted in the cognitive make-up of the individual, but produced and reproduced through language and culture, through the hidden assumptions and presuppositions on race, ethnicity or nationality. Irrespective of the chosen analytic perspective, analyses of the language of racism consider ‘speaking about others’ a matter of paramount significance. For Hill, this is a far-reaching issue that can help one understand not only the interplay and role of language, culture and race in the continuous reproduction of racism, but also one’s own culture. What is notable about Hill’s book is that it courageously engages with the intricate dynamic and interconnectedness of language and culture as constituent of presuppositions, forms of expression and practices of everyday racism. Hill discusses the continuing, yet most often invisible presence of racism in contemporary American society with masterly attention to both the theoretical and social context. This is a book on how White racism is produced and reproduced through everyday talk and text. Commonsensical meanings we attach to race and racism, to language and the way we use language are said to be an integral part of how racism operates and perpetuates itself in society. The book focuses on everyday instantiations of racism among middle- and upper-middle-class White professionals. The entire book is based on the observation that ‘racism remains an active force in White American culture in the twenty-first century’ (p. vi). Linguistic practice is at the core of Hill’s examination of everyday racism and linguistic anthropology is the perspective adopted. Through careful weaving of theoretical points, ideas derived from personal experience and suggestive examples, Hill brings a refreshingly new insight into problems that continue to preoccupy students of racism. C  The author 2009 Journal compilation C  Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2009 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA