Crystal M. Fleming - How to Be Less Stupid about Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide — at Politics and Prose at The Wharf

The U.S. exists in a state of racial ignorance, Fleming contends, noting that the same attitudes that justified slavery, let Jim Crow control the South, and tolerated lynching have allowed the resurgence of white supremacism today. Combining social critique, analysis of critical race theory, and her own experiences, Fleming—author of Resurrecting Slavery and associate professor of sociology and Africana studies at Stony Brook—delivers hard, blunt lessons that redefine “white supremacy” and expose the mechanisms that built and perpetuate a systemic racism. While learning such lessons will make people “uncomfortable,” it will also radically alter how the nation discusses race and lead to lasting social changes.