Video:Nell Irvin Painter: The History of White People
May 5, 2011
Nell Irvin Painter knows a few things about the nuances of color. In addition to earning an MFA in - what else? - painting, the former Princeton professor has spent her career as a historian writing books like Creating Black Americans and Southern History Across the Color Line.
In this four-minute FORUM Network excerpt, Painter reads from her latest book, The History of White People, offering an overview of the genetic and environmental determinants of human skin color as well as a glimpse at how class and culture affect our beliefs about America's ever-changing epidermal palette.
