The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein | Conversation Starters

by Daily Books

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein | Conversation Starters


Segregation in America has contributed to so much social strife. Richard Rothstein makes extraordinary revelations about how this came to be and how government policies promoted the segregation that continue to this day. With meticulous research and strong analyses, The Color of A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America chronicles the untold story. Its well-researched evidence sheds light on a policy of de jure segregation in every presidential administration. It is a history of racism apparent but unrecognized, compelling Americans to act on the injustice done by government policies.


The New York Times calls it powerful and disturbing. Many critics agree that it is a rare book that will be discussed and debated long into the future.


A Brief Look


EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER than the surface of its pages. The characters and their world come alive, and the characters and its world still live on. Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on.


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This book you are about to enjoy is an independent resource meant to supplement the original book. If you have not yet read the original book, we encourage doing before purchasing this unofficial Conversation Starters.

Genres: Nonfiction

ebook

Published November 21, 2017

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The point of this book is that segregation of African Americans was in large part determined by laws—the FHA wouldn't give loans to African-Americans, or even make loans to subdivisions that had African American residents. Expressways were built through African American neighborhoods, or to make borders between black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods. A depressing book.

If you ever read Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn—where there are overwhelming examples of wrong doing—this book is similar. Each chapter has bunch of different examples of another kind of discrimination.

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK going into this book I thought I knew what at least part of it would contain, division of cities because of highway and road construction. Boy was I in for a surprise! It did have a small bit of that, but it had so much more.

This is a divisive, educational, eye-opening, infuriating, depressing, sad, perplexing, history of one of the most sad parts of our human history.

This pulls so much more together in tiny little bits and pieces that really make you think about your white privilege. Even if you don’t think you partake in obvious actions, there are so many many little areas in every day life that contribute to this vast separation that we’re experiencing.

I live in Utah, so I will admit I am in a very vanilla state, and the experience here is very different from other states, but we are not perfect and we do have our problems, small as they may be comparison.

I don’t think it would hurt anyone to read this book, it will only help you.

He does give some suggestions at the end of ways to change and help. But it’s a very long and depressing process no matter who you are or when you start, but wouldn’t you rather be on the side of correction?

[Wil A Emerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsure about government interference in established inequality? Do you doubt that a variety of government agents and leaders intentionally contributed to segregation? Richard Rothstein's account of government bias and willing complicity to keep our country divided racially is stunningly well documented. Profound. De Facto we were taught...people divided out of choice? De Jure...by order of the government. Rothstein looks at facts gathered from the twentieth century archives to confirm his hypothesis. Freedom, equality for all? The civil war long behind us. Then politicians interfered. The New Deal...who made the biggest deals to water down the constitutional rights of all citizens? Federal, state and local laws imposed residential segregation. Unions were complicit, too. The machinery of government policy misled American's, black and white, and kept generations of people below middle-class, in poverty. What goes unanswered is why. Pure bigotry, bias, false ideation? Or to keep a group of people yearning for government help, living on hope and promise, and voting again and again for those who failed them? Unconstitutional? Read...decide. Love your neighbor.

[Mary Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a really long time to finish this book, but it was well worth it. Mostly because I had to sometimes Re-listen to parts of it. It is a little complicated and hard to follow but i also liked how the author did a number of questions and answers at the end, very helpful to the discussion. And I also liked how he made everyone accountable to change things for the better.

Honestly, everybody really should read this book and even re-read it. There’s some great information here and it is well documented and researched. I do feel that a lot of people don’t understand the history of our country in a way that would help them to better understand how it can be fixed. it’s up to all of us to do that. To just avoid the problems by saying that they don’t exist is not really working. We can all contribute to make our present society into one that is not only integrated, but thriving. It takes a different kind of mindset to go forward with knowledge of the past. Law and policy must be used together to make it happen.

[Lora Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a helpful book for me, as a white woman, with only a superficial knowledge of the racist practices of red lining and bank lending practices. The book educated me a great deal in a relatively short amount of time. I read it as an Audible book, although I will go back and read it via Kindle for the footnotes. I appreciated the documentation and the data driven approach to the book. The book approaches the racist practices of modern history in an academic sense, without much as much sensitivity to how this might sound to a person of color reading the words. I mention that not as a criticism, but just that both the book’s density of information and its tone might require more time for readers to sit with what’s shared before carrying on with the book as if one is reading a recipe. I would recommend this book to anyone, although in particular those in the practice of real estate, banking, and in government oriented professions.

[Mary Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the programs and practices that have been in place in the US to ensure segregation in housing: How loans were given/not given, where people were allowed to live/not live, where interstate highways were routed/not routed. I've read several race related books now and the systemic oppression and injustice is maddening. Why isn’t this part of the history taught in our schools?

[Theron King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives examples and shows just how deep and complex racism towards blacks in America is and has been. It is hard to get a grip of just how much racism has led us to where we are today until information like this is taken in. It’s also hard to move forward and build without this info. Though it’s a sad subject in enjoyed getting more insight.

[PATRICIA MARTIN]

As an Afro- American living in 2020, I found the book very depressing. Realizing very little or nothing has changed over the years. All the false myths about Blacks actually made me Angry.
I would only recommend this book to an integrated family.

[Laura Lederer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is fascinating based on the history of red-lining and laws associated with the progression of where and why we are where we are today relative to Black Lives Matter. I would suggest an audio version of this book as it’s definitely written from a legal point of view.

[Katharine Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If nothing else, read the FAQ section at the end to fight ignorant views about racism in the US.

[Christopher Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering. Should be essential reading.