Understanding Race Readings

September 6, 2017

This collection of books and other recommended readings, created as a companion to our Understanding Race After Charlottesville initiative, can provide a deeper understanding about the concept of race and the realities that it has created in our society.

• "How Real Is Race? A Sourcebook on Race, Culture, and Biology," Second Edition
  Carol C. Mukhopadhyay, Rosemary Henze, and Yolanda T. Moses
  Online Supplement
  
  How real is race? What is biological fact, what is fiction, and where does culture enter? What do we mean by a “colorblind” or “postracial” society, or when we say that race is a “social construction”? If race is an invention, can we eliminate it? This book, now in its second edition, employs an activity-oriented approach to address these questions and engage readers in unraveling—and rethinking—the contradictory messages we so often hear about race.
  
  
• "Race: Are We So Different?"
  Alan H. Goodman, Yolanda T. Moses, and Joseph L. Jones
  
  Featuring new and engaging essays by noted anthropologists and illustrated with full color photos, RACE: Are We So Different? is an accessible and fascinating look at the idea of race, demonstrating how current scientific understanding is often inconsistent with popular notions of race. Taken from the popular national public education project and museum exhibition, it explores the contemporary experience of race and racism in the United States and the often-invisible ways race and racism have influenced laws, customs, and social institutions.
  
  
• "Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School"
  Edited by Mica Pollock
  
  Which acts by educators are “racist” and which are “antiracist”? How can an educator constructively discuss complex issues of race with students and colleagues? In Everyday Antiracism leading educators deal with the most challenging questions about race in school, offering invaluable and effective advice.

  A new companion text, Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About --and To--Students Every Day, asks readers to consider head-on the ways we talk about race every day in schools.

• Each of us has our own notions of what “race” is and what it tells us about ourselves and others. Our roots as humans are tangled, and our complex histories and social constructs make race impossibly difficult to define. In her blog for SAPIENS, Yolanda Moses explores the factors that make race such a fractious concept and points us toward new ways of understanding its meaning in our lives.