Description
| Product ID: | 9781786634382 |
| Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Series: | Jacobin |
| Title: | Toward Freedom |
| Subtitle: | The Case Against Race Reductionism |
| Authors: | Author: Toure Reed |
| Page Count: | 224 |
| Subjects: | Poverty and precarity, Poverty & unemployment, Social discrimination and social justice, Ethnic studies, Social welfare and social services, Central / national / federal government policies, Social discrimination & inequality, Black & Asian studies, Social welfare & social services, Central government policies, USA |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating For many progressives, racial identities are the engine of American history, and by extension, contemporary politics. They, in short, want to separate race from class. While policymakers and pundits find an almost metaphysical racism, or the survival of an ancient and primordial tribalism at the heart of American life, these inequities are better understood when traced to more comprehensible forces: to the contradictions in access to New Deal era welfare programs, to the blinders imposed by the Cold War, to Ronald Reagan's neoliberal assault on the half-century long Keynesian consensus. As Touré Reed argues in this rigorously constructed book, the road to a more just society for African Americans and everyone else, the fate of poor and working-class African Americans is inextricably linked to that of other poor and working-class Americans. “The most brilliant historian of the black freedom movement” reveals how simplistic views of racism and white supremacy fail to address racial inequality—and offers a roadmap for a more progressive, brighter future (Cornel West, author of Race Matters). The fate of poor and working-class African Americans—who are unquestionably represented among neoliberalism’s victims—is inextricably linked to that of other poor and working-class Americans. Here, Reed contends that the road to a more just society for African Americans and everyone else is obstructed, in part, by a discourse that equates entrepreneurialism with freedom and independence. This, ultimately, insists on divorcing race and class. In the age of runaway inequality and Black Lives Matter, there is an emerging consensus that our society has failed to redress racial disparities. The culprit, however, is not the sway of a metaphysical racism or the modern survival of a primordial tribalism. Instead, it can be traced to far more comprehensible forces, such as the contradictions in access to New Deal era welfare programs, the blinders imposed by the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan''s neoliberal assault on the half-century long Keynesian consensus. |
| Imprint Name: | Verso Books |
| Publisher Name: | Verso Books |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2020-02-25 |
