Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just as I was reading about how the government segregated the Bay Area, I saw images of the torch-lit march in Charleston. I recognized my sickening kinship of whiteness I shared with those marching. It is the kinship of willed cultural ignorance that forms the foundation of white privilege in America. That I was shocked as a 57 year old white American man aware of this nation’s racist past is part of the bond I share with those young men in Charleston. My shock is that of my white privilege hitting up against the racist reality from which I benefit. I can’t hold on to the fact of intentional governmental, societal and cultural segregation against the everyday belief that we are a liberal, tolerant and diverse society. And because I am surrounded by my own kind, we share our collective amnesia which allows us to ponder why is it that African-Americans haven’t worked their way out of poverty. ‘The Color of Law’ is a great book because it is focused on disputing the legal amnesia of the Robert’s Court that plays to the safety of continued white privilege by denying the reality of decades of intentional racism which manifests itself as segregation. Rothstein marshals his evidence like a lawyer to show all the ways in which this nation knowingly pursues policies to keep the American dream white and restricted. Incidentally the book makes it clear that American racism is cold and systemic. It is merciless and as relentless as a shark. White people love to claim that they aren’t racist not understanding that when they do that, they are admitting to the racism they refuse to see. American racism isn’t about an individual white person’s warm feelings towards an African American. No doubt many slave-owners had warm feeling about individual African-American slaves. No, American racism is about the system that whites pretend not to know exists that gives them the freedom to like individual African-Americans while spouting ‘law and order’ slogans. It is time for us white people to own our racism and expose our comfortable lies that make the system work. Only then can we start the hard work we have ahead of us.