"The Idea of the Caucasian Race as a 'Haunting'"

"When Lewis traveled to the Caucasus in 2019, hardly anyone she met knew that 'Caucasian' could be a synonym for 'racially white.' Only the handful of Caucasians she met who had traveled to the United States understood their unintended recruitment into whiteness, and they learned of their status almost accidentally—filling out an immigration form, or in a chance encounter with a white supremacist who treated the visiting Caucasian 'like a god.' Lewis sees the idea of the Caucasian race as a 'haunting' that still manages to convince some Americans that there is some scientific validity to the idea of a unified white race. Her book aims to put that idea finally to rest."

Erin L. Thompson at The Nation reviews Sarah Lewis's The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America.