How to Be Less Stupid About Race

230 pages

English language

Published Jan. 8, 2018

OCLC Number:: 1040083900

(1 review)

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 …

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 ignorance--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 and 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 for you.

1 edition

kab reviewed How to Be Less Stupid About Race by Crystal Marie Fleming

How to Be Less Stupid About Race

5 stars

Brilliant, affirming, clear, concise. This is the antiracist primer I'd like to give to everyone I know.

Notes: I wouldn't equate being bullied for wearing 'ridiculous' Pentecostal garb with Islamophobic aggression, nor imply that headscarves represent nothing but religious oppression. Crystal also seems to have a grudge against the idea of an immigrant work ethic as if it's a dominant paradigm that erases the hard work of others?

Also: This is Dr. Fleming's critique of Ta-Nehisi Coates' work. In her own work I admire that she's humbly open about her path of continuous learning, that she's started a conscious process of decolonising her scholarship, that she walks the walk and is ready to adjust her ideas with expanded information, and—she doesn't pull any punches.

Subjects

Race relations
Racism
Race awareness