Synopsis
A history of anti-Black racist ideas in America, arguing they were produced to justify discriminatory policies rather than the reverse.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workRacist ideas did not create racist policies so much as policies of exploitation created the ideas later used to excuse them.
It reverses the common assumption that prejudice comes first, locating the engine of racism in material self-interest and power.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals.
Reading note
Read it as a sweeping intellectual history organized around five thinkers, not as a self-help guide to personal bias.
Best paired with
Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals