Newly-released Institute for Social Progress Book Hailed as ‘Must Read’ in 2016

Reclaiming Integration and the Language of Race in the “Post-Racial” Era, by Wayne County Community College District Chancellor Curtis L. Ivery and Director of the Institute for Social Progress Joshua Bassett, is a book to add to your reading list in 2016, according to BLAC, the premier lifestyle magazine for African-Americans in and around Detroit.

“The book is a powerful read about the salience of race and inequity of opportunity existent in the United States…the essays presented critically address the problematic nature of utilizing color-blind discourse to address enduring racial segregation and racism,” noted Sarah Diem, PhD, assistant professor, educational leadership and analysis, faculty affiliate, Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri.

Reclaiming Integration and the Language of Race in the “Post-Racial” Era, by Curtis L. Ivery and Joshua A. Bassett, with leading scholars in the fields of education, law, sociology and urban studies, posits that America must reclaim the project of racial integration in schools and in our communities if we are to maintain ourselves as a democracy.

Amongst the book’s key analyses:

• It analyzes the three-decade long re-segregation of U.S. schools that have returned to levels not seen since the 1960s, which has shifted from its historical focus on the binary of black and white populations to an analysis that includes Latino and Asian communities.

• It identifies new forms of segregation in the U.S. that have emerged from the nation’s unprecedented changing racial demographics. This includes the most current work in the fields of sociology and urban studies dealing with racial preferences in housing and implicit racial bias.

• It links an analysis of how our dominant social discourse of race functions to sustain “post-racial” social beliefs and civic policy, including legal frameworks that govern equal access to education and to fair housing. The book argues for a “new racial discourse” that both reflects our nation’s transforming racial demographics and desire to provide dignity and representation to every American.

In addition to the commentary provided by Ivery and Bassett, chapter authors include nationally renowned scholars in the fields of education, law, sociology and urban studies, such as Gary Orfield, john powell, Reynolds Farley, Maria Krysan, Howard Winant, Sheldon Danzinger (and noted others).

The book is published by Rowman & Littlefield: https://roman.com/RLPublishers. It is available at major bookstores, and online here.