The United States is not post-racial, despite claims otherwise. The days of lynching have been replaced with a pernicious modern racism and race-based violence equally strong and more difficult to untangle. This violence too often results in the killing of Black Americans, particularly males. While society may believe we have transcended race, contemporary history tells another story with the recent killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others. While their deaths are tragic, the greater tragedy is that incidents making the news are only a fraction of the assault on communities of color in. This volume takes seriously the need for concentrated and powerful dialogue to emerge in the wake of these murders that illuminates the assault in a powerful and provocative way. Through a series of essays, written by leading and emerging academics in the field of race studies, the short "conversations" in this collection challenge readers to contemplate the myth of post-raciality, and the real nature of the assaults on communities of color. The essays in this volume, all under 2000 words, cut to the heart of the matter using current assaults as points of departure and is relevant to education, sociology, law, social work, and criminology.
(Foreword) Rick Ayers & William Ayers Breathe: Notes On White Supremacy and The Fierce Urgency Of Now (Poem) Lillie Lindsay: Red Riding Hoodie (Introduction) Lori L. Martin, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Nicholas D. Hartlep, Cleveland Hayes, Roland W. Mitchell, & Chaunda M. Allen-Mitchell - By Means of Introduction: An Open Letter (Poem) Bryce Davis Bohon - Peace: A 6 Year Old St. Louisan Speaks Section 1: The Mythical Post-Racial America 1. Jason Irizary & Jonathan Rosa - Complicating Black and Brown Solidarity: Racial Positioning and Re-Positioning in "Post-Racial America" 2. Brad Kershner - The Opposite Of A Great Lie: Racism, Capitalism, and Education Policy Knowing Our History 3. Rene Antrop-Gonzalez: Apartheid and Symbolic Violence in The New Latin@ South: Reflections and Implications 4. Chezare A. Warren - I Get Angry: The Quandary of Postracialism 5. Paul Gorski - Ferguson and The Violence of "It's-All-About-Me" White Liberalism 6. Dana L. Bickmore - "I Need To Check With Corporate" 7. Leigh Jefferson Griffin - Skittles, Arizona Iced Tea, and Cigarettes: The Price of Black Lives in A "Post-Racial" America 8. Amanda R. Martinez & Robert Gutierrez-Perez - Are We Post-Post-Race Yet?: Moving Beyond The Black-White Binary Towards a Mestiza/O Consciousness 9. Melinda Jackson & Dari Green - Contradicting Realities in The Mythical Post Racial: America Blinded to Matters of Color? 10. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor - What Divides Black America? Section 2: Racism & Violence Against Minority and Minoritized Communities 11. David O. Stovall - Normalizing Black Death: Michael Brown, Marissa Alexander, Dred Scott and the Apartheid State 12. Christine Sleeter - Viewing Barack Obama Through Racist Stereotypes 13. Cheryl Matias & Roberto Montoya - When Michael's Death Means Our Own Children's Death: Critical Race Parenting in A Time of Racial Extermination 14. Reanna S. Roby & Theodorea Regina Berry - Respectability Politics and Acts Of Violence 15. Horace R. Hall - Countering Postcolonial Assaults on Black American Life 16. Subini Ancy Annamma - We Can't Breathe: The Impacts of Police Brutality on Women of Color 17. Susan Anne Cridland-Hughes & Lagarrett J. King - Killing Me Softly: How Violence Comes From the Curriculum We Teach 18. Robin Diangelo - The Sketch Factor: "Bad Neighborhood" Narratives As Discursive Violence 19. Dewey M. Clayton - Racial Justice in America: Alternative Universes 20. Lisa B. Haileab And Ivory A. Toldson - The Death of Amir De'Mani Brooks: Counseling Psychologists Response To Racism and Violence Against Black Communities Section 3: The Black Male Experience in The United States 21. Donna Y. Ford - Save Our Black Males: I Should Not Have to Celebrate That My Son Lived to See the Age of 35 22. Howard C. Stevenson & Kelsey Jones - What if My Trayvon Came Home? Teaching a Wretched Truth About Breathing While Black 23. Larry C. Bryant - Gone In 90 Seconds: A Black Male Body - Normalcy, Never Again 24. Cassandra D. Chaney - Michael Brown and The Shared Ambivalence of Black And Brown America 25. Shirley Mthethwa-Sommers - Echoes of 'People Stealers:' Trauma Revisited 26. Lori Martin & Jahaan Chandler - And to Make Matters Worse 27. Cleveland Hayes - And You Wonder Why I Am An Angry Black Man 28. Roderick L. Carey - Desensationalizing Black Males: Navigating and Deconstructing Extreme Imageries Of Black Males and Masculinities 29. Donna Vukelich-Selva - If The System's Broke... 30. Joni Boyd Acuff - Grey Hoodies, Baggy Jeans And Brown Skin: The Violence Against Black Males Via Signs and Signifiers Section 4: The Fight For Equity: Communities Speak Up And Out 31. Paul D. Grant & Carl A/ Grant - To Be Men And Women: The Black Struggle For Justice Continues 32. Lisa (Leigh) Patel - Educational Research and Institutionalized Oppression 33. Audrey Lensmire - Necessary and Insufficient: Teaching and Writing in a Violent World 34. Christine Clark - The Insidiousness of Indifference to Black Injury in White America 35. Enrique Aleman, Jr. - Resisting the De-Humanization of Youth of Color: On The Death of Big Mike, "Illegal" Your Leaders and Proud Utes 36. Danielle Joy Davis, Christopher Aaron Deans, Jason S. Davis, Linda M. Davis, & Eilleen Buckner - A Call for Compassion: An African American St. Louis Family's Reflections on Ferguson 37. Adonay A. Montes - Living the Silence: An Impediment to Culture and Equity 38. Isaac M. Carter - New-Freedom School Movement 39. Rochelle Brock - Dreaming Of Revolution: My Struggle To Understand The Assault On Blackness 40. Shirley R. Steinberg - Postmodern Fire Hoses: Media Recollections From Southern California
