I’m a writer and a Shakespeare and critical race studies scholar who’s always been intrigued by the invisible, artificial race-based boundaries in our world. I love analyzing the lives of literary characters and seeing how they can serve as mirrors for us along lines of gender, mental health, and more. My critical interests are informed by the fact that I grew up in a predominantly Black/Latino low-income neighborhood and attended an affluent, predominantly white private school from the sixth to twelfth grade. My adolescent experiences with inclusion/exclusion dynamics required me to reflect on race, for example, so I could understand and navigate the kinds of socio-cultural dynamics that affect us all.
My book is about racially white Shakespeare characters, and it analyzes how England’s prolific playwright depicted ideal and less-than-ideal white figures based on the dominant culture’s norms. I appreciate how popular plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and all Shakespearean dramas, concern themselves with race and racial dynamics, just like Othello, a play centering on a Black Moor character.
Through my key concepts—the “intraracial color-line” and “white other”—I offer readers critical tools that illuminate how intraracial divisions (within whiteness) contribute to the perpetuation of anti-Black racism, even in the absence of racially Black figures. With attention to mental health, gender, intersectionality, and other topics, my book enables readers to understand important connections between the operation of race in Shakespeare’s time and our own.
I love this book, which was published in 1903, because of how timeless it is and because of how relevant Du Bois’ words are to our present moment in which racial inequality and racism persist.
I appreciate the historical perspective Du Bois provides his readers so the past is not forgotten, so the past helps us understand the historical trajectory that led us to right now. The writing is clear, smart, and beautiful, offering a blend of genres—from music to memoir—that keeps readers engaged as they read Du Bois’ astute analyses of the past and his suggestive projections about the future.
As an English professor, I love introducing my students to this classic text, which inevitably evokes empathy from them and, in some, elicits a desire for activism. This is a text that moves people.
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature.
The book contains several essays on race, some of which had been published earlier in The Atlantic Monthly. To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African American in American society. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the early works…
I love this book not only because of the hard truths it tells in relation to racial whiteness and racism but also because of how Rankine’s writerly voice reverberates through one’s mind long after finishing the book.
As someone who sometimes finds it hard to sit still to finish a book, I did not have that issue with Just Us partly because of how diverse and stimulating the content is. In addition to including poetry and prose within the text, there are many images to see and study as one internalizes the urgent points made by a witty, seasoned author whose overall tone demands that readers be part of and sit with this “American conversation” that asks us to think deeply about power, privilege, inequality, whiteness and more.
Now in paperback, Claudia Rankine's "skyscraper in the literature on racism" (Christian Science Monitor)
In Just Us, Claudia Rankine invites us into a necessary conversation about Whiteness in America. What would it take for us to breach the silence, guilt, and violence that arise from addressing Whiteness for what it is? What are the consequences if we keep avoiding this conversation? What might it look like if we step into it? "I learned early that being right pales next to staying in the room," she writes.
This brilliant assembly of essays, poems, documents, and images disrupts the false comfort of…
I love this book because Fleming offers necessary socio-historical correctives and demystifies many myths that people believe about race, racism, and stereotypes.
The writing is punchy, pithy and humorous. As such, it is entertainingly educational and scholarly while presenting facts in a way that is accessible to general readers.
I also love this book because it is incredibly useful both to those who are “stupid about race,” so to speak, and those who aren’t. For the former, I think this is a great book to start with on one’s journey toward becoming more race-conscious and more educated about race.
A unique and irreverent take on everything that's wrong with our “national conversation about race”—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…
Beyond appreciating this memoir’s important content and the masterful way Dr. Blackstock raises awareness about a public health crisis that needs prioritization, I love this book because the author reaches into the depths of her own family history in a very vulnerable way that discloses the personal in order to deliver a message that everyone needs to hear.
The implications of Blackstock’s argument about healthcare and medical racism should matter to every human body, thus making this book urgent reading material for all—from doctors to patients and their loved ones.
Blackstock unearths and examines a harsh truth for readers: inequities perpetuated by the racial hierarchy do serious damage to the human body, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And it won’t be that way forever if people become more aware and concerned and then work relentlessly to change the system.
“This book is more than a memoir—it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women.” —Essence
One of NPR’s 11 Books to Look Forward to in 2024
One of Good Morning America’s 15 New Books to Read for the New Year
“Legacy is both a compelling memoir and an edifying analysis of the inequities in the way we deliver healthcare in America. Uché Blackstock is a force of nature.” —Abraham Verghese, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Covenant of…
I love this satirical book because, through humor, it generated productive discomfort within me and thus attached valuable lessons to my emotional responses. The book even stirred up childhood memories for me and forced me to reflect on my past, on my life experiences. In other words, I haven’t forgotten what I learned from this book. And I won’t.
I never thought I could laugh so hard while absorbing hard truths about race and racism until I encountered this provocative book. I love that the book includes striking historical information. Overall, I appreciate how the authors present their position in such a way that kept the book on my mind even when it was not in my hands.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS FINALIST
"Hilarious yet soul-shaking." —Black Enterprise
The fearless comedy legend—one of the “Original Kings of Comedy”—hilariously breaks down the wisdom of white people, advice that has been killing black folks in America for four hundred years and counting.
200 years ago, white people told black folks, “‘I suggest you pick the cotton if you don’t like getting whipped.” Today, it’s “comply with police orders if you don’t want to get shot.” Now comedian/activist D. L. Hughley–one the Original Kings of Comedy–confronts and remixes white people’s “advice” in this “hilarious examination of…
Reading was a childhood passion of mine. My mother was a librarian and got me interested in reading early in life. When John F. Kennedy was running for president and after his assassination, I became intensely interested in politics. In addition to reading history and political biographies, I consumed newspapers and television news. It is this background that I have drawn upon over the decades that has added value to my research.
It didn’t begin with Donald Trump. When the Republican Party lost five straight presidential elections during the 1930s and 1940s, three things happened: (1) Republicans came to believe that presidential elections are rigged; (2) Conspiracy theories arose and were believed; and (3) The presidency was elevated to cult-like status.
Long before Trump, each of these phenomena grew in importance. The John Birch Society and McCarthyism became powerful forces; Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first “personal president” to rise above the party; and the development of what Harry Truman called “the big lie,” where outrageous falsehoods came to be believed. Trump follows a pattern that was long established within the Republican Party. This is an untold story that resonates powerfully in the present.
Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism
It didn't begin with Donald Trump. The unraveling of the Grand Old Party has been decades in the making. Since the time of FDR, the Republican Party has been home to conspiracy thinking, including a belief that lost elections were rigged. And when Republicans later won the White House, the party elevated their presidents to heroic status-a predisposition that eventually posed a threat to democracy. Building on his esteemed 2016 book, What Happened to the Republican Party?, John Kenneth White proposes to explain why this happened-not just the election of Trump but the authoritarian shift in the party as a…
