This book is bold in its approach to present race as the center of what American politics has been and what it has the potential to be. Reid places the lens on Barack Obama and the Clinton regime as a way of analyzing the multifaceted and consistently developing Democratic Party. It’s not an indictment but a call, a laying of the political foundation for America, moving forward. It achieves much by being strikingly present while examining the history of the intense relationship race and politics in the US.
Nelson really grapples with what the onslaught of genetic genealogy testing really means in a social context. As a recipient of the mitochondrial DNA testing to African roots, like Nelson, it’s refreshing to witness an account that speaks to the heart of DNA testing for people of African descent—it means a possible reclamation of ties to the land from which people were taken. The work merges genetics with race, politics and identity to address exciting and ever-present concepts—reparations and reconciliation.
Watkins gives you a rare opportunity when discussing the marginalized ‘other’—he has experienced polarizing views of a city that’s been slammed with injustices for decades. A Baltimore native, Watkins went from dropping out of school and selling drugs to being a professor and standing on the front lines with a Baltimore as it virtually exploded following the death of Freddie Gray. Watkins doesn’t mask anything—his raw truth a perspective that is too often ignored.
