A new edition of a celebrated contemporary work on race and racism
Praised by a wide
variety of people from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Zadie Smith, Racecraft
“ought to be positioned,” as Bookforum put it, “at the center
of any discussion of race in American life.”
Most
people assume racism grows from a perception of human difference: the
fact of race gives rise to the practice of racism. Sociologist Karen
E. Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue otherwise: the
practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they
call “racecraft.” And this phenomenon is intimately entwined with
other forms of inequality in American life. So pervasive are the
devices of racecraft in American history, economic doctrine,
politics, and everyday thinking that the presence of racecraft itself
goes unnoticed.
That
the promised post-racial age has not dawned, the authors argue,
reflects the failure of Americans to develop a legitimate language
for thinking about and discussing inequality. That failure should
worry everyone who cares about democratic institutions.