Sadly, it took me longer to get to this book than I wanted but I will try to give a proper review of this phenomenal book. Gilman and Thomas ask a question that is on many people's mind: Are racists crazy? When we look at social media, one of the things people often say when confronted with racism, prejudice, white supremacy and similar ideologies based on hatred is, "They must be crazy", implicating that no "sane or normal" person would think like that. Of course, people who experience racism and antisemitism, which is also discussed here, see this phrase as a deflection. If a person is just mentally ill, then they can't be held responsible for their racism and actions.
And I think it's important to keep in mind: racism and antisemitism are a decision. Nobody is born with prejudice, it's bred and taught. But growing up in a toxic household marked by poverty I realised that racism was correlated to mental illness in that disadvantaged white people oftentimes couldn't cope with their trauma and their pain and hate that was caused by somebody else, is directed at other unprivileged people because they are easy targets.
So, because of personal experience and general interest in the topic, I asked for a copy of the book and I was not disappointed!

Gilman and Thomas survey the scientific discourse from the late 19th c. to the present day, taking also into account popular media.
They show, for example, how the supposed biological inferiority of African Americans and Jewish Americans was of course absolute BS and debunked by sociologists, biologists and anthropologists. However, the idea that started in the 19th c. has survived even after WW2. In fact, as Angela Saini shows in her masterful book "Superior", "race science" never disappeared and we are seeing now appearing it in mainstream media, right-wing thinktanks and the internet. Tech bros are basing their programming on these racists notions and the consequences are dire.

The pathologicing of racism and antisemitism is of course not new. The best example is how Nazi Germany was being described as being infected by antisemitism, making Hitler like a virus. Antisemitism and the Shoa thus don't become part of general culpability and responsibility of German citizens but rather the blame is shifted unto single people that made everyone else bad by infecting them with antisemitism.
This, of course, is equally false. The Shoa happened because antisemitism had been rampant for centuries and people held different levels of prejudice against Jewish people.

The book talks also about how Jewish Americans studied how racism affected African Americans during the era of Civil Rights Movements and even how some Black psychologists, like Poussaint, wanted to have racism perpetrated by white people as a medical illness (it was not classified as an illness).
While Gilman and Thomas argue that yes, racists and antisemites are "crazy", meaning mentally ill, I think that the answer is more complicated and nuanced.
I do think that people who are poor, disabled and have experienced enormous trauma are prone to becoming prejudiced. It's psychologically much easier to become a toxic and abusive person when you yourself have been abused. Racism and antisemitism are an easy answer to complex problems. Instead of questioning neoliberalism, capitalism, patriarchy, abuse or white supremasy, these people rather blame other marginalised communities for their woes.

It does, in fact, make absolutely no sense to blame marginalised, often times underprivileged and disenfranchised communities for the harm that right-wing politics and capitalism are doing but some people are incapable or unwilling to confront these difficult problems. Equally, victims of abuse oftentimes can't break the cylce of abuse, either becoming perpetual victims and co-dependent, abusers or a mix of both. I do think that trauma - no matter if through poverty or abuse or any other reason - is at least partially responsible for prejudice of all forms because prejudice is an easy way to direct your rage.
And while racists and antisemites are "crazy", I think we should be mindful of how we talk about this. At the end of the day, each individual can work on themselves to overcome their trauma and not become a racist POS. Even with hardship, abuse and mental illness, being racist is a choice. One that makes little sense for the poor but a lot more for those profitting from capitalism.

I also think that the rich, meaning millionaires and billionaires, are important driving forces of racism because they themselves are also racist and use racism as a tool to direct the anger of white disenfranchised citizens to other more marginalised communities. Case in point: the current admin of the US.

All in all, a fantastic, in-depth study with rich sources, a phenomenal historical overview that leaves you with the inspiration to learn more about the mechanisms of racism and antisemitism.

Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read a review copy.

Mind and prejudice
Are Racists Crazy?

By Kel Munger
kelm@newsreview.com

This article was published on 01.12.17.

Now that we’ve got so many of them coming out of the closet, it makes sense to ask, “Are racists crazy?” That’s the question that Sander L. Gilman, a professor of psychiatry, and James M. Thomas, a professor of sociology, set out to answer in Are Racists Crazy? How Prejudice, Racism, and Anti-Semitism Became Markers of Insanity (New York University Press, $35). Don’t expect an easy answer from these two academics, who instead give us the history of how we went from pathologizing race (running away from slave masters was a mental illness called drapetomania; even Jewish psychoanalysts once believed Jews were more prone to neuroticism and hysteria) to pathologizing racists. While some of us might call that progress, Gilman and Thomas take a much less partisan approach; instead, they focus on the concepts of interiority, hatred and the crowd mentality.