Race: How Blacks And Whites Think And Feel About The American Obsession

by Studs Terkel

Presents the feelings of nearly one hundred Americans on such issues as affirmative action, changing neighborhoods, and secret prejudices.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Race, Politics, Sociology, Oral History, Social Justice

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.

Reviews

[eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watching Friends has almost certainly made me a worse person in every way, but I would probably never have picked up this book if I hadn't noticed Ross reading it at one point. So I guess it was worth it?

I wish Studs Terkel were still alive, so he could re-interview the people featured in this book. Some thought racial issues were getting better at the time (1990), and some thought they were getting worse. It would be interesting to see what they'd say about the past ten years.

[Chris Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing I love about Studs Terkel's books is how it immediately calms you down and makes you look at your fellow man a little different. I should amend that. If you are the sort of person who demands that everybody looks at things the same as you, has the same opinions as you, and lives the same way you do, then you may be frustrated by his books. Because what really comes out in his short interviews with ordinary people from all different backgrounds are the complexities of humanity.

In his books are the voices of a welfare mother sitting next to you on the bus as well as a multi-millionaire CEO. What you learn is that everybody, no matter their background, has something interesting to say if you just stop talking and start listening. They all have their own sets of opinions and different ways of looking at things.

In the past few years, I've read "Race", "The Good War", "Hard Times", and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?". With the possible exception of the last of those books, which was missing something for me, reading Studs Terkel leaves me feeling much more accepting of the world I live in, differences and all.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from me pointing out that this book was both monumentally uplifting and monumentally depressing, it only seems appropriate to let the people speak for themselves:

Alex Berteau, partner at a black law firm: "There seemed to be a positive change in the seventies. Whatever momentum was there went bang, after Reagan became president. I'm not about the business of tearing down Ronnie. He's just somebody who came along. He happened to be in the place for eight years. What I'll never understand was how we could take a man, born in almost the first decade of the century, and get him to preside over the next to last decade, to do everything in his power to throw us back into the first decade of the century. What a ripoff."

C. P. Ellis, ex-Klansman turned union leader and civil rights activist (and Durham, NC resident): "I worked my butt off and never seemed to break even. They say to abide by the law, do right and live for the Lord, and everything'll work out. It just kept getting worse and worse... I began to say there's somethin' wrong with this country. I really began to get bitter. I tried to find somebody. I began to blame it on black people. I had to hate somebody. Hatin' America is hard to do because you can't see it to hate it. You gotta have somethin' to look at to hate. [Laughs.] The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan... They sent some robed Klansmen to talk to me and give me some instructions. I was led into a large meeting room and this was the time of my life! It was thrilling. Here's a guy who's worked hard all his life and struggled all his life to be something, and here's the moment to be something. I will never forget it... After I had taken my oath, there was loud applause goin' through the buildin', musta been at least four hundred people. It was a thrilling moment for C. P. Ellis."

(Some years after this, Ellis represents the poor white viewpoint at a community meeting regarding the distribution of a HEW grant for school improvement, which he is named co-chairperson of, along with Ann Atwater, an African-American civil rights activist)

"Her and I began to reluctantly work together. [Laughs.] She had as many problems workin' with me as I had workin' with her... My old friends would call me at night. 'C. P., what the hell is wrong with you? You're sellin' out the white race.' This began to make me have guilty feelin's. Here I am all of a sudden makin' an about-face and tryin' to deal with my feelin's, my heart. My mind was beginnin' to open up. I was beginnin' to see what was right and what was wrong. I don't want the kids to fight forever... One day, Ann and I just sat down and began to reflect. Ann said, 'My daughter came home cryin' every day. She said her teacher was makin' fun of her in front of the other kids.' I said, 'Boy, same thing happened to my kid. White liberal teacher was makin' fun of Tim Ellis's father, the Klansman, in front of other peoples. He came home cryin'.' At this point--[He pauses, swallows hard, stifles a sob.]-- I begin to see, here we are, two people from the far ends of the fence, havin' identical problems, except her bein' black and me bein' white. From that moment on, I tell ya, that gal and I worked together good. I begin to love the girl, really. [He weeps.]"

Mamie Mobley, teacher, mother of Emmett Till: "Mose Wright, my mother's brother-in-law, pointed out Bryant and Milam as the two men who came for Emmett: 'Thar's them.'* It took unprecedented courage. Nothing like that had ever happened in the South before. That was an old black man, sixty-five years old. He stayed in the area until he was rescued by some civil-rights group and put under surveillance. One night he slept in the graveyard behind his church. He was a minister. He slept under the cotton house one night. He never spent another night in that house. No one did..."

Terkel: "Look back for a moment. Didn't you feel the Lord deserted you? You're a young mother, your only child brutally murdered, your life almost destroyed--wasn't there an instant when you wanted to hurt his two killers?"

Mobley: "No, No. The only real change that came over me when Emmett was killed--I was a very private person. I could stay in my house one year and not go any farther than the front porch and be perfectly happy. My thoughts were centered around Emmett and myself and what we were going to do, and planning for our future. Then all of a sudden, in the midst of despair, it wasn't really important for me to live. Death at that time would have been preferable. The phone rang one day and an editor from Jet magazine** wanted to know, 'What are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm going to school and be a teacher.' I was shocked. From the time I was seven, I wanted to be a teacher. I grew up in Argo, Illinois, and had never met a black teacher. There was no such animal. I didn't have a black teacher until I was in my second semester in college. That door was closed, so I gave up those dreams. Then all of a sudden--this was in the fall of 1956, about a year after Emmett had been... [Sobs softly.]... I'd buried Emmett... My burning--the thing that has come out of Emmett's death is to push education to the limit: you must learn all you can. Learn until your head swells."


Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, psychologist, whose research was "crucial" in the Brown v. Board of Education decision: "Bayard Rustin used to ask me, 'With your cynicism, your pessimism, as intense as it is, why haven't you committed suicide?' My reply is: 'I'm curious. I really want to see this process, this joke, up until I die.'"


* Also remembered as "Dar he," which is the title of a one-man play regarding the murder and trial: there are clips on youtube.
** Jet was also, I believe, the first magazine to publicize the photographs of Till's body.

[Public Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Studs Terkel always had a strong belief in the wisdom of the masses. Too often American media and establishment figures treat the public like we are too stupid to understand anything. I think the books that Studs Terkel put together over his long career prove this notion wrong. Regular people know the score. And if you can get them to let their defenses down and open up, Terkel's greatest skill, you will get insights into the human condition that no PhD's dissertation would ever reveal.

Another thing I like about the books by Studs Terkel, from The Good War to Hard Times to this book, is the wide variety of perspectives that he brings together. Over the course of a book you get the point of view of hundreds of different people all talking about the same subject. When you come at an issue from so many directions you end up getting a really comprehensive, well-rounded understanding.

This book wasn't strictly a pleasure read. It took some persistence to push all the way through, but it was a rewarding and educational journey, well worth the effort.

Some things that really reflected the anxieties of the time this book was written, around 1990, kept coming up. Many interviewees mention affirmative action. Many, many more mentioned Louis Farrakhan than ever would have today. He was obviously having quite a moment in the spotlight during the late 80s, early 90s. Also, many people in this book had a sense that open racism was staging a comeback under Ronald Reagan. Far too many people talked about that for it to be strictly politically motivated. I found that striking

Those few current events issues were the exception however. I think the majority of this work is timeless in reflecting the myriad ways, large and small, that racism shapes the American experience. This book really gives the reader a first person perspective on how racism operates and how prejudice feels. The metaphor that really stuck with me was footwear. Terkel quotes Chicago insurance man Joseph Lattimore: "Being black in America is like being forced to wear ill-fitting shoes. Some people adjust to it. It's always uncomfortable on your feet, but you've got to wear it because it's the only shoe you've got. Some people can bear the uncomfort more than others. Some people can block it from their minds, some can't. When you see some acting docile and some acting militant, they have one thing in common: the shoe is uncomfortable." It's always there.

An eye-opening book. Well worth your time.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Studs Terkel's "Race" is another in a series of books that provides an excellent oral history about subjects that few feel free to talk about. If you like oral history, then you'll love Studs Terkel. Famous for his classic book "Working", he seeks out common "unfamous" Americans and simply asks them to talk about what they think about Race and race relations, in this book. Written in 1990, the book is a little dated, but still holds largely true. There are around 100 interviews in this book. He interviews about an equal amount of Blacks and Whites with some other ethnicities mixed in, and like in all of his books, he interviews about the same number of old and young, men and women, and middle-class and poor. (No mention of anyone's sexuality though.)

Some highlighted stories are from a white former Ku Klux Klan member and a black former civil rights leader are interviewed some two decades later. The Ku Klux Klan member has become a hard-core anti-racist radical who is President of his union which is more than 80% Black. The former civil rights leader has become a conservative republican (though he still believes in limited Affirmative Action). Many of the other stories are interesting because when you put the white point of view and the black point of view right next to each other, there are clearly some huge gaps in understanding each other, and usually the faults and ignorance seem to lie on the white point of view (though some of the interviewed are trying to change their understandings or admit they've changed). There is a lot of frustration on both sides, but at no point do you get an opinion exactly the same as another individual.

I have a belief that you should have 10% theory and 90% action, and lately I've been reading a lot of theory. Books like these are a good antidote to too much theory in your life. I love oral history, because it's straight to the point and doesn't require any detective work by the reader to find out what the author is talking about. Something like the subject of Race, being so linked to how people in the United States relate to each other, you need some straight-forward answers. People too often dance around the issue of race and in order to build a social change movement that brings real improvement in all people's lives; we can't squirt around race anymore than class or gender or sexuality or anything else. Most often, the real battle is the battle for the hearts and minds of people, and to understand what that is exactly. Oral history is important.

In conclusion, Studs Terkel is my favorite non-fiction writer of all time, because his work involves the words of thousands of ordinary people.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Studs Terkel has always impressed me with his ability to get people to speak their mind. (And in an era before the Internet and Social Media, the tone of his work radiated an authenticity that is now sorely lacking.)

His book, RACE, was no exception to this overarching characteristic of his legendary career.

Although written more than 20 years ago, RACE was prophetic in its summation of the extent of the problem of racism in the US. It wasn't a call to action. It wasn't a analysis of the situation. But it was a powerful look at what people thought.

Many of the folks Terkel spoke with were old enough to remember the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In a few cases he interviewed people who lived in neighborhoods that experienced rioting. Others talked about moving from the Deep South to Chicago in hopes of a brighter future.

With a current White House administration that seems to be more than willing to administer heaping doses of amoral amnesia, RACE still stands as an important reminder that diligence is a necessary virtue in a democracy.

[Amy Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed my life by opening my eyes to how racism works, how pervasive and insidious it can be - and also how it hurts people, how it changes people, and how it breaks down sometimes.

This book also proves that racism is real which may sound weird if you grew up knowing it was real - but if you grew up in a polite, PC, 90% white neighborhood like mine where no-one was called names it draws back the veil.

Thank you very much, Studs Terkel, I miss you.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book from the local English Language library where more recent books on race in America are either absent or are already feeding thirsty minds. Like so many acquaintances of mine I wanted to learn about racism in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. I was already aware of Studs Terkel's tremendous works of primary source sociology so when I saw this on display I had to take it.

What struck me most is that though Terkel published "Race" in 1992 every one of these interviews could have been conducted today; so little has changed. That's a whole generation of people who's lives have been negatively affected by America's systemic racism! And why? If "we" have been aware of this problem for thirty years why has so little changed for African-Americans? I think my own ignorance, and that of many white people is foundational to America's systemic racism. Beyond removing "our" ignorance many tangible societal changes need to be realized. It seems insurmountable given any knowledge of America's race-relation history.

At the moment my contribution in the struggle is miniscule, it focuses on self-education. I see education as the first step in a much larger project of racial justice and hopefully someday, equality. This isn't a topic that is simple, or clean, or that one feels good learning about - but that doesn't change the fact that without trying, nothing is going to alter the status quo. I see people post on social media in frustration, anger, and to inform others. I feel so guilty that I don't do this too, don't initiate conversations with those who are closest to me. Perhaps that is the second step in the struggle...

For those who are ready to self-educate about racism over the last century I would recommend "Race." Though it wasn't published this year, you wouldn't notice any difference if it were except maybe on the issue of police militarization.

[Joanne Zienty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad to say, it would seem we have not made much progress in the two decades since this book has been published... in fact, in some ways, we've regressed.

[Eliot Boden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly relevant, 30 years later.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Race’ was published in 1992. What I found most interesting about re-reading Mr. Terkel’s book nearly thirty-years later is comparing the perspectives with today’s environment in 2021. The late author (1912-2008) was a die-hard progressive reporter who had an exceptional ability of getting a wide variety of people to open up to him. Most of the interviews took place in Chicago, which is fine because of the city’s rich racial history. President Ronald Reagan’s conservatism was prevalent at the time of the interviews and people became more emboldened to spew out racist vocabulary and stereotypes that had been less common during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. I found many of the perspectives echoing President Foghorn Leghorn Trump’s and Tucker Carlson-like demagogue’s race-baiting behavior.

‘Race’ shows that, while conditions have improved for blacks in the United States over the last thirty years, many racist attitudes remain firmly in place. As Mark Twain aptly stated, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The interviews sample a wide variety of demographics including race, age, education, and socioeconomic conditions. It shows such things as intergenerational perspectives; class divisions; social pressures to conform to provincial standards; veiled language; and the evolution of the people interviewed. All the perspectives come across as heartfelt. Fear is prevalent throughout the book and many use their faith in God as a bulwark against their anxieties. Some of the interviews are uplifting while others are quite depressing. The N-word and other derogatory terms are used a lot. While the overriding theme is white-and-black relations, there are a few viewpoints explaining anti-Semitism, anti-Asian, and anti-Latino stereotypes. The book also presents a few viewpoints from foreigners who immigrated to the United States. Frustrations, hopes, fears, assumptions, courage, and compassion are all portrayed.


‘Race’ is a good sampling of America’s most divisive issue and, despite the book being nearly thirty-years old, it is still very relevant. Mr. Terkel’s book is not a complete downer but a humane approach of taking time to really listen to people with different perspectives than you have. ‘Race’ avoids sensational rhetoric that is common on commercial television news. The book is a very empathetic collection of insights and serves up a cornucopia of interesting perspectives. There’s no doubt that all humans are a culmination nature and nurture.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oral history of race relations in the U.S. that despite its flaws should probably be read by everyone.

It's not perfect: it's a little dated and a little too focused on the civil rights backlash, black-white relations and the consequences of de-industrialization in the Midwest. In other words it's very Chicago. An entirely different book would have arisen out of an oral history of the Los Angeles riots -- which went down the same year "Race" was published (1992).

That said, Studs Terkel is a fabulous historian. The stories here are endlessly surprising and touchingly human. There are no saints or sinners here. And each time you think you know one of Terkel's speakers they twist back and contradict themselves, circling round and round a constant, but uncertain, human decency.

Be warned, it's not a page-turner. I slogged through it over the course of many months, but I'm glad I kept at it.

[Benjamin Lettuce Treuhaft · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one's taking me a while to read, started a couple of months ago in Japan. I have to find out how people go from normal American white racist like my earlier self to loving and admiring black red and yellow folks. I'm starting to see how it works in these fascinating tales told to the amazing Studs Turkel by people on all sides of the color line. By the way I think it must be far easier to change people's minds about black folks than we think (given the sorry decades of stasis since the civil rights movement). I'm looking for the key.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interview approach provides a more candid point of view based on an individual life experience, which provides more truth to it. For some of the participants it was not clear if they were white or black until an unforeseen observation they made revealed how they perceived themselves. It takes place in the 1990s in Chicago area, but the history still holds. In fact it is surprisingly prescient about the hollowing out of the working class and destruction of jobs. I enjoyed it, but was not necessarily surprised by anything.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interviews with everybody from a Black Panther to a KKK Grand Dragon, but the truly interesting interviews are the ones in the middle, so to speak. The neighborhood people. The clergy. The teacher. The tradesmen. Studs Terkel is brilliant. I sometimes have a hard time believing that there are people -- particularly Chicagoans -- who've never read any of his work.

[Mary Sisney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because this book was published in 1992, it provided a fascinating view of what people were thinking about race immediately after Reagan left office and Bush Senior became President, partly by using a racist ad. I had forgotten that Willie Horton's rape victim was white (can we say Bill Cosby, boys and girls). I also had forgotten (if I ever knew it) that Papa Bush vetoed a Civil Rights Act. I knew that period represented a racist backlash to the progress of the sixties and seventies, but I thought it was much less vile than the period we're in now. I have to remove the "much" from that "less vile." That period, like this one, brought racism out of the closet. Bigots were emboldened during that period, and black people were angry as they are now. I liked the idea of using many voices (mostly from the Chicago area) from different races, classes, occupations, etc., but mixing famous people with unknown or less known people was a bad strategy. When I see famous names like Lerone Bennett and Clarence Page, I wonder why Terkel didn't talk to Jesse Jackson or the often mentioned Farrakhan. My favorite speakers were not the famous ones but the unknown ones, like an Irish woman named Betty Rundle, who stayed in her South Side of Chicago neighborhood after it transitioned from white to black. Mrs. Rundle preferred her black neighbors, who were more loving and nice and weren't bothered by her special needs son, who as a child would occasionally touch women's rear ends. Let me quote the insightful Mrs. Rundle: "Do white people, white women, have some kind of sex hangup? Right away they'd put some kind of sexual connotation on his loving act. Could it be a legacy of the puritan revolution?" Yes, it could, Betty. Just be happy your son was white. I also found the white police officer Dennis Hinkson's comments about the drug war interesting. He compared it to Vietnam, suggesting that both the cops and the drug dealers and users brought the Vietnam War tactics back home. (Then) young black journalist Charlise Lyles' comments about the Central Park Five trial are interesting because we now know the truth. Ms. Lyles was bothered that the young men were found guilty without physical evidence, but she was even more bothered that the charge of racism was used by their defenders inside and outside the court. Said Ms. Lyles in the early nineties: "I think this sends a warped message to our young people that it's okay to do something wrong and you can get off on a racism rap." Oops! This book would not have been nearly as fascinating if I had read it when it was first published.

[John Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terkel’s successful formula to learn about people’s work through interviews did not hold up when it’s about the complicated issue of race in America. Throughout the book, contributors spoke about race as complicated, emotional, unconscious yet Terkel takes the words of those. Ring interviewed as the gospel. In addition, it seems that many fit a progressive mode, however flawed as they were I. Their thinking.

Still, the book does speak of race in America in the late 1980’s and very early ‘90’s. Reading his book is like having a drink in the bar with a lot of people talking about race but without getting drunk. Does synod truly summarize Americans in that period? Nothing indicates it does, but it still raises some important questions to ponder.

Repeatedly, the book spoke of unity of purpose when workers bargained together in unions. Race still existed but shared goals and collaboration of action took front and center. Class became more important - or at least lifted up further than usual - than race. That was an interesting observation in many stories but not explored enough with the simple structure of the author’s book.

The underlying issue of trust and threats was powerful. Many admitted that they would be concerned if three black men were coming down the street. Many whites spoke about affirmative action being a threat to them. And many stories spoke about how race was baked in at an early age because of parents or neighborhoods or media. It takes a different life experience in America for that not to be the case.

Terkel had way too many stories from Chicago, his home. It didn’t just emphasize the mid-west but the unique politics of Chicago especially fresh from the Washington years. He also found too many people who were like him, academics or progressives who held Reagan largely responsible and had at least a Hope of race equality in our country. Where were the voices of the racists we’ve seen far more of thanks to the last president? Where were the views of those who were fighting busing and intervention? If it is a story about race in America, we need to include those revolting views.

The book also makes it nearly a black and white issue. Little was said of Latinos and less was said of Asians and Arabs. Terkel could have been ahead of his times to truly make this a book about race in America. The book was hard to read when quickly realizing the short-sided structure.

[John Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all oral histories, the speakers in this book are chosen because they state - or sometimes just serve as examples of - the author's own opinions. What emerges is a tapestry of whites who both acknowledge the imperfections of the past and are trying to move the country forward, but have some legitimate concerns the direction society is going, and blacks who are both deeply aggrieved and sometimes profoundly racist. Working class whites often are portrayed (unfairly I think) in an especially unflattering light. What is missing is middle America - good-hearted people of whatever hue who realize that skin color is one of a person's least important characteristics and believe government, the news media, and educational institutions should reflect that in what they do and say.

The author, Studs Terkel, formed his world view in the 1930s, and his opinions appear to have stopped evolving no later than the 1950s. He was a dinosaur by the time this book was published in 1992, and his views are even more dated today. However, his book does provide insight into the mid-twentieth century liberal/leftist mindset, and is useful as a history of that sort of person.

[Samantha McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

15/10. Whewww this was a really hard read. Written in
1992, Pulitzer Prize- winning Studs Terkel takes the reader through an emotional rollar coaster of interviewing a broad range of individuals from different races (predominantly, black, and white) and economic classes about their raw, unfiltered opinions on the idea of race and its implications in society. They explore issues around civil rights, affirmative action, poverty programs, gerrymandering, social and political race climate and many other tuff conversations that now, 30 years later, STILL ways heavily on out society and our conversations. For all their differences, biases, bigotries, and prejudices the interviewees are virtually in unanimous agreement that gap between the races has continued to widen.

[Wes LeVo Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend the original edition I read. The newer additions have been altered and the texts are different. The chapter with Emmett Till’s mother is worth the price of admission. One of the best books on race relations you can find. A great alternative to texts that miss the mark because of the author’s political bias and agendas that make the reading a chore getting through an opinion piece. These are first accounts of stories retold by conversations with Terkel collected as a book. I would much rather hear history told by the people who lived through it as opposed to a young scholar’s regurgitation of research revised by personal opinion at the forefront.

[Michael Linton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a series of interviews about race. This was published in 1992. This could have been written today and you couldn't tell the difference. One common theme among people was that after Reagan got elected, people thought it made people more openly about being racist. The same thing was said after Trump got elected. It was an interesting insight to see how people thought about race during this time period.

[Jan Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that fosters great discussions. Not for the faint of heart. Studs is great at capturing different perspectives. I didn’t complete, but plan to pick it up from time to time. The writing style allows for this, so give yourself time

[5greenway · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are all deceptively simple, but brilliantly put together. Powerful stories; depressingly relevant, what, 27 years later?

[Drew Rosensweig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good news: 25 years later, we're still obsessed and barely any better at it.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read through page 133 and got what I was looking for. Terkel's perspective on race in America. He was spot on.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you live in the United States, if you have ever lived in the United States, you should read this book.

[jzthompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I probably should have done. Perhaps down to the slow and bitty pace I read it more than anything but after a while, I started to find the stories a bit repetitive.

[Zane Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

enlightening

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave it the old hundred page try

[Jennifer Titan's Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master storyteller! A plethora of powerful anecdotal stories about race. One of my favorites along these lines.