Book
A more perfect reunion : race, integration, and the future of America
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York, NY : Bold Type Books, 2020.
Physical Description
vii, 279 pages ; 22 cm
Summary
"For four centuries, Americans have found ways to live in a system of racial tyranny and apartheid. We tell ourselves that we know better, but with each generation, too many of us have been satisfied with doing just a little, deciding that the rest is a question for the future. But as acclaimed, award-winning writer Calvin Baker argues in this bracing, necessary book, we are now in that future: racism has torn the country apart and threatens our democracy. The only solution, Baker argues, is integration, which he defines as the full self-determination and participation for all African-Americans, as well as all other oppressed groups, in every facet of national life. Desegregation, diversity, and representation, our usual fall-back solutions, are not enough. Integration is the only remedy to a racist state and to our divisions, and the deepest challenge to the racial order. It is the real goal of civil rights, and the most radical, neglected idea in American politics. At once a provocative reading of U.S. history from the colonial era, and a trenchant critique of the obstacles to integration in our current political and cultural moment, A More Perfect Reunion is also a call to action. As Baker reminds us, we live in a revolutionary democracy; now we must finish that revolution"--
Contents
- Introduction: the lie of demographics
- The shadow before memory. When we were English ; The toll of independence ; Forgetting and remembrance ; The land without memory ; American empire: from periphery to center ; The death of the Civil Rights movement
- The cold civil war. Affirmative action, diversity, and symbolism ; The mainstreaming of Black music ; Pastime ; Hipsters in the city ; This is us? Ambivalence and representation
- In light of the White Lion.