How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide

by Crystal Marie Fleming

Paperback, 2019

Status

Available

Publication

Beacon Press (2019), Edition: Reprint, 256 pages

Description

Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML:A unique and irreverent take on everything that's wrong with our "national conversation about race"â??and what to do about it How to Be Less Stupid About Race is your essential guide to breaking through the half-truths and ridiculous misconceptions that have thoroughly corrupted the way race is represented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics. Centuries after our nation was founded on genocide, settler colonialism, and slavery, many Americans are kinda-sorta-maybe waking up to the reality that our racial politics are (still) garbage. But in the midst of this reckoning, widespread denial and misunderstandings about race persist, even as white supremacy and racial injustice are more visible than ever before. Combining no-holds-barred social critique, humorous personal anecdotes, and analysis of the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on systemic racism, sociologist Crystal M. Fleming provides a fresh, accessible, and irreverent take on everything that's wrong with our "national conversation about race." Drawing upon critical race theory, as well as her own experiences as a queer black millennial college professor and researcher, Fleming unveils how systemic racism exposes us all to racial ignoranceâ??and provides a road map for transforming our knowledge into concrete social change. Searing, sobering, and urgently needed, How to Be Less Stupid About Race is a truth bomb for your racist relative, friend, or boss, and a call to action for everyone who wants to challenge white supremacy and intersectional oppression. If you like Issa Rae, Justin Simien, Angela Davis, and Morgan Jerkins, then this deeply relevant, bold, and incisive book is fo… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member villemezbrown
Another terrific and thought provoking step on my road to becoming less stupid about race. I found the first couple chapters on critical race theory and intersectionality full of solid information but the book really came alive for me in the Obama chapter where Fleming does an eye-opening
Show More
critique/takedown of the former president. And it just gets stronger as she rips through the Trump presidency and the culpability of mass media in systemic racism. I like that she opened up about her own experience for the chapter on interracial relationships and closed out the book with some suggestions for next steps.

More than anything, I want to make time in the near future to learn more about Ida B. Wells and the work she did to fight the appalling domestic terrorist act of lynching.
Show Less

Original language

English

Original publication date

2018-09-18

Physical description

256 p.; 5.57 inches

ISBN

0807039845 / 9780807039847

Local notes

politics
Page: 0.1396 seconds