On the question of structural racism, I would very strongly recommend Richard Wright (Black Boy or Uncle Tom’s Children, not Native Son) or anything by [JErrol Louis was born in Harlem, raised in New Rochelle and lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife, Juanita Scarlett. He is the son of a retired NYPD inspector and formerly served as associate editor of The New York Sun. He has taught college, co-founded an inner-city community credit union, run for City Council and was once named by New York Magazine as one of 10 New Yorkers making a difference "with energy, vision and independent thinking." He holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Brooklyn Law School.ames] Baldwin. All of it is “before my time,” but I found each to be worth a long shelf’s worth of sociology or history texts.
When I taught a course on black culture at the Pratt Institute in the late 1990s, my students were artists who had to take one (and only one) social science course before graduating. I always assigned Wright and would urge you to do the same. People not in the habit of reading should start with the very best.
Thanks to Errol Louis for the book recommendations.
The University of Chicago political scientist Michael Dawson helped kick off this series a few days ago. To see his first recommendation, click here; there's more coming from Professor Dawson, too, so watch this space.
--Marshal Zeringue
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