A Realistic Blacktopia Why We Must Unite To Fight

The United States is dogged by racism and racial disparities in income, wealth, health, education, and criminal justice. Philosophers disagree on what kind of politics is needed to address this problem. Do we pursue race-specific remedies to undo racism or do we assume the permanence of racism and opt for non-race-specific remedies in pursuit of a more egalitarian society? Paradoxically, the way to make racial progress in racist America is to downplay race.

In A Realistic Blacktopia, political philosopher Derrick Darby challenges the "small tent" approach by examining U.S. Supreme Court cases on education and voting rights arguing that they hold general lessons about the limits of racial politics. Securing racial justice in racist America calls for "big tent" remedies, and Darby argues that pursuing non-race-specific remedies with maximal democratic inclusion is a necessary strategy for mitigating racial inequality and achieving racial justice.

A Realistic Blacktopia offers clarity on how racism persists, contrary to claims that America is a postracial society. Explaining why the myth of postracialism cannot be ignored in crafting remedies for racial inequality, Darby supplies a principled pragmatic proposal for achieving racial justice. Drawing on the political thought of Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, and the black radical tradition, Darby also explains why achieving racial justice requires inclusive democracy.

Derrick Darby is Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He holds a BA from Colgate and a PhD from Pittsburgh. He discovered his passion for philosophy growing up in the Queensbridge public housing projects in NYC. For the backstory, see his TEDx talk, "Doing the Knowledge." He writes about rights, inequality, and democracy. He has been profiled in The Atlantic and published in The New York Times and other outlets. He is a cohost of A Pod Called Quest. His most recent book, with John L. Rury, is The Color of Mind: Why the Origins of the Achievement Gap Matter for Justice.