New Book! More Beautiful and More Terrible The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States

More Beautiful and More Terrible
The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States
by Imani Perry

272 pages
February, 2011
ISBN: 9780814767375

For a nation that often optimistically claims to be post-racial, we are still mired in the practices of racial inequality that plays out in law, policy, and in our local communities. One of two explanations is often given for this persistent phenomenon: On the one hand, we might be hypocritical—saying one thing, and doing or believing another; on the other, it might have little to do with us individually but rather be inherent to the structure of American society.

More Beautiful and More Terrible compels us to think beyond this insufficient dichotomy in order to see how racial inequality is perpetuated. Imani Perry asserts that the U.S. is in a new and distinct phase of racism that is “post-intentional”: neither based on the intentional discrimination of the past, nor drawing upon biological concepts of race. Drawing upon the insights and tools of critical race theory, social policy, law, sociology and cultural studies, she demonstrates how post-intentional racism works and maintains that it cannot be addressed solely through the kinds of structural solutions of the Left or the values arguments of the Right. Rather, the author identifies a place in the middle—a space of “righteous hope”—and articulates a notion of ethics and human agency that will allow us to expand and amplify that hope.

To paraphrase James Baldwin, when talking about race, it is both more terrible than most think, but also more beautiful than most can imagine, with limitless and open-ended possibility. Perry leads readers down the path of imagining the possible and points to the way forward.

Reviews

“Imani Perry has done it again. With an uncanny ability to merge art, law, social science, and cultural studies, she weaves a powerful analysis of race in contemporary America.” -- Patricia Hill Collins, author Another Kind of Public Education

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Imani Perry is a professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. She holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization and a J.D. both from Harvard and is the author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop.

Wither Black History?

John Hope Franklin @ the University of Rochester in 1953

from The Loop

Black History is More Important Than Ever
by Mark Anthony Neal

he election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President has accelerated conversations in this country about the significance of race. For those who thought that the country had already made significant racial gains, President Obama’s election was just confirmation. For many others, the election of the first Black president means little to those who lack the opportunity and privilege that President Obama was afforded.

As the debates rage on with regards to whether or not we live in a post-race society, it is perhaps legitimate to wonder about the significance of Black History, as we celebrate the first Black History Month in this country after the election of the first Black head of state.

According to a logic that suggests the country has transcended the limitations of race, it would seem there should be no use for the study of Black History and by extension, institutions such as African-American Studies departments and black cultural centers.

But that logic largely works only for those who never viewed the study of Black History as a serious enterprise and only as a feel-good endeavor designed to enhance the self-esteem of African-American youth. And while there is great pride to be taken in the learning of so many black “firsts,” Black History and the field of African-American/Black Studies is so much more than that.

Read the Full Essay @