Rich Benjamin

Rich Benjamin is an American cultural critic, anthropologist, and author. Benjamin is perhaps best known for the non-fiction book Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America.[1][2][3] He is also a lecturer and a public intellectual, who has discussed issues on NPR, PBS, CNN and MSNBC.[4] His writing appears in The New York Times,[5] The New Yorker,[6] The Guardian[7] and the Los Angeles Times/[8]

Benjamin delivering a keynote to elected officials, civic activists, and journalists in Charleston, SC, June 2019

Rich Benjamin
Born
New York City, United States
EducationWesleyan University (BA)
Stanford University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Author, television commentator, cultural critic
Websiterichbenjamin.com

Career

Benjamin's work focuses on US politics and culture, comparative world politics, money, class, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, public policy, global cultural transformation, and demographic change.[6][8]

Benjamin has been contributing essays to The New Yorker since 2017.[9]

Benjamin speaks across the country on technology and digital media.  He has presented talks at Techonomy and at conferences on Web 3.0, decentralization, crypto, and blockchain.[10]

Benjamin is one of the leading experts on whiteness in America—including how demographic change affects social attitudes; how white migration patterns shape economic and political trends; and how perceptions/experiences of whiteness impact a person's and community's political behavior, as well as the democracy.  Benjamin's work exposes how a white conservative minority is working to dismantle democracy — voter suppression; threatening Electors; gerrymandering; undercutting information and expertise; and normalizing domestic terror and violence.

Benjamin's investigation of Whitopia was the subject of a TED Talk that has been viewed more than 2.8 million times.[11]  His book was one of the first to have predicted well in advance the social and-political forces creating the rise of "Trumpism"[12] The book has received wide coverage on NPR,[13] MSNBC,[14] CNN, and Fox News.

In 2020 Benjamin was appointed to the advisory board of New_Public, a community of thinkers, designers and technologists planning and building more democratic and usable digital public spaces for the future.

In 2021 Benjamin delivered the Poynter Lecture at Yale Law School on "conservatism and Trumpism in the era of digital media—on how right-wing ideology, white fear, and the digital media ecosystem threaten democracy in America."[15]

In 2021, he served as a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.[16]

Education

As a doctoral student at Stanford University, Benjamin studied with Professors Tim Lenoir and Terry Winograd, an adviser to the founders of Google.

References
  1. James, Randy (October 12, 2009). "America's Booming White Enclaves". Time. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  2. Poon, Linda (August 12, 2015). "A Black Man's Journey Through 'Whitopia'". CityLab.
  3. "A Black Author's Journey Into American 'Whitopia'". NPR. October 6, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  4. Melber, Ari (January 15, 2018), Playing to the GOP Base?, retrieved January 9, 2019
  5. Benjamin, Rich (2017), "The Ego in The Spectacle", The New York Times, retrieved August 15, 2019
  6. Benjamin, Rich (April 4, 2018). "Gun Control and the Politics of White Paranoia". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  7. Benjamin, Rich (August 13, 2016). "Leading Writers on Donald Trump". The Guardian. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  8. Benjamin, Rich (July 19, 2019). "Op-Ed: Trump's race-baiting hasn't produced many policy wins, but that was never the point". Los Angeles Times.
  9. The New Yorker (2022). "The New Yorker Contributors". The New Yorker.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. New_Public (July 1, 2022). "Live from the Decentralized Web". New_Public.
  11. "Rich Benjamin". TED.
  12. Sanneh, Kelefa (April 5, 2010). ""Beyond the Pale: Is White the New Black?"". The New Yorker. p. 10. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
  13. NPR Radio Hour (November 20, 2015). "What is a Whitopia? And What Might It Mean to Live There?". NPR.org.
  14. MSNBC News (January 15, 2018). "How Does Race Play to Trump's Base?". YouTube.
  15. Yale University Law School (January 15, 2022). "Whiteness, Conservatism, and Democracy in the Digital Age, Rich Benjamin, Poynter Lecture".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. New York Public Library (January 15, 2022). "Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, NYPL".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)


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