Mixed Race Studies

Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul

Crown
2016-01-12
288 Pages
6-1/4 x 9-1/4
Hardcover ISBN: 9780804137416
Ebook ISBN: 9780804137423

Eddie S. Glaude Jr., William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies
Princeton University

A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a post-racial society

America’s great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police, to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency—at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we’ve solved America’s race problem.

Democracy in Black is Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s impassioned response. Part manifesto, part history, part memoir, it argues that we live in a country founded on a “value gap”—with white lives valued more than others—that still distorts our politics today. Whether discussing why all Americans have racial habits that reinforce inequality, why black politics based on the civil-rights era have reached a dead end, or why only remaking democracy from the ground up can bring real change, Glaude crystallizes the untenable position of black America–and offers thoughts on a better way forward. Forceful in ideas and unsettling in its candor, Democracy In Black is a landmark book on race in America, one that promises to spark wide discussion as we move toward the end of our first black presidency.

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape

Counterpoint Press
2015-11-10
240 pages
5.5 x 8.25
Hardcover ISBN: 9781619025738

Lauret Savoy, Professor of Environmental Studies and Geology
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts

An environmental historian traces her mixed ancestry by reading both the land and the blistering record of race in America

Sand and stone are Earth’s fragmented memory. Each of us, too, is a landscape inscribed by memory and loss. One life-defining lesson Lauret Savoy learned as a young girl was this: the American land did not hate. As an educator and Earth historian, she has tracked the continent’s past from the relics of deep time; but the paths of ancestors toward her—paths of free and enslaved Africans, colonists from Europe, and peoples indigenous to this land—lie largely eroded and lost.

In this provocative and powerful mosaic of personal journeys and historical inquiry across a continent and time, Savoy explores how the country’s still unfolding history, and ideas of “race,” have marked her and the land. From twisted terrain within the San Andreas Fault zone to a South Carolina plantation, from national parks to burial grounds, from “Indian Territory” and the U.S.-Mexico Border to the U.S. capital, Trace grapples with a searing national history to reveal the often unvoiced presence of the past.

In distinctive and illuminating prose that is attentive to the rhythms of language and landscapes, she weaves together human stories of migration, silence, and displacement, as epic as the continent they survey, with uplifted mountains, braided streams, and eroded canyons.

She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story

Balzer + Bray (an imprint of HarperCollins)
2010-10-19
32 pages
8.5 in (w) x 11 in (h) x 0.25 in (d)
Hardcover ISBN: 9780061349201
eBook ISBN: 9780062184801

Audrey Vernick

Illustrated by Don Tate

Effa always loved baseball. As a young woman, she would go to Yankee Stadium just to see Babe Ruth’s mighty swing. But she never dreamed she would someday own a baseball team. Or be the first—and only—woman ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

From her childhood in Philadelphia to her groundbreaking role as business manager and owner of the Newark Eagles, Effa Manley always fought for what was right. And she always swung for the fences.

From author Audrey Vernick and illustrator Don Tate comes the remarkable story of an all-star of a woman.

America Is Not Post-Racial: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, and the 44th President

Praeger
September 2015
170 pages
6.125 x 9.25
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4408-4125-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4408-4126-2

Algernon Austin, Senior Research Fellow
Center for Global Policy Solutions, Washington, D.C.

This book is the first in-depth examination of the 25 million Americans with the most intense hatred of President Obama—arguably the most Republican-friendly of recent Democratic presidents—and what the mindsets of these “Obama Haters” teach us about race and ethnicity in America today.

Despite the fact that President Obama was raised by a white mother and white grandparents, and has two degrees from Ivy League universities, he has still been subject to intense racial hatred from a large number of Americans. Even after Obama’s presidency, the “Obama Haters”—and their xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism—will continue to shape American politics.

America is certainly not post-racial, argues author Algernon Austin, PhD, a noted sociologist and author on racial issues who consults on race, politics, and economics in Washington, DC. In this book, he uses the Obama Haters as an appropriate jumping-off point to consider what strategies might begin to reduce racial animosity in the United States—a real concern, considering that demographic trends are likely to exacerbate and escalate race-based hatred in our society.

Austin sets the stage for the discussion by establishing that President Obama is hardly liberal in the eyes of liberal political activists, raising the question of why Obama is so intensely hated by some conservatives. He then compares the views of the Obama Haters—estimated to be some 25 million strong—with conservatives, moderates, and liberals who are not Obama Haters. The author shows how the Obama Haters are distinctly more xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist than political conservatives who are not Obama Haters, underscoring the fact that the Obama Haters are motivated by more than just conservatism.

Features

• Offers a critique of Obama from the left on his health insurance reform, judicial and political appointments, civil liberties policies, educational reforms, and strategy for dealing with African American concerns
• Presents hard data showing that Obama Haters are so extreme in their conservatism and in their anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-black attitudes that in comparison, Tea Party supporters appear to be moderate
• Boldly identifies strategies for dealing with white racial anxiety about a diversifying America
• Provides empirically derived estimates of the percentage of the American public with strong anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim attitudes

Demonizing a President: The “Foreignization” of Barack Obama

Praeger
August 2014
253 pages
6.125 x 9.25
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4408-3055-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4408-3056-3

Martin A. Parlett

This groundbreaking political exposé scrutinizes the motivations behind the unparalleled attacks on President Barack Obama that attempt to undermine his eligibility to lead the country.

The ascendancy of the first African American president was a watershed moment in American history. In response, President Obama’s adversaries have engaged in relentless and systematic mudslinging throughout his campaign and well into his presidency, “othering” him as a foreign and dangerous political figure. Never before has a presidential candidate been so maligned, by so many, in such a variety of ways—and yet won. This provocative study investigates the unrest behind the Obama campaign and election, and the controversial political machine that causes it.

Martin A. Parlett, himself a former campaigner for Barack Obama, examines the role identity politics and racialization play in the anti-Obama movement, shows how foreignization is the latest tool for political dissent, and discusses the ways in which the president has successfully utilized the “outsider” label to his own advantage. The book questions the popular—and often contradictory—notions of Obama as illegitimate, Muslim, Marxist/Communist, socialist, Kenyan, terrorist, and angry African American. Additionally, chapters trace political marginalization and race throughout history from slavery to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, concluding with the culture of distrust in the American political psyche since the events of September 11, 2001.

Features

• Analyzes the tactics used by political adversaries to undermine the presidency
• Considers the mass of literature and filmography which proliferates narratives of the president’s foreignization and offers a counter-position
• Examines the rhetorical frames and motivations of Obama’s foreignization
• Provides insight into the motivations surrounding Obama-era conspiracy theories, such as the Birther movement
• Underlines the post-20th century emergence and maintenance of an increasingly polarized electoral climate

Color Stories: Black Women and Colorism in the 21st Century

Praeger
October 2015
198 pages
6.125 x 9.25
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4408-3109-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4408-3110-2

JeffriAnne Wilder, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida

Colorism continues to impact women of African descent in a new generation and century.

This book offers an in-depth sociological exploration of present-day colorism in the lives of black women, investigating the lived experiences of a phenomenon that continues to affect women of African descent.

Race still matters. And for black women, the related issues of skin tone are just as important today as in decades past. Part cultural commentary, part empirical analysis, this book offers a compelling study and discussion of colorism—a widely discussed but understudied issue in “post-racial” America—that demonstrates how powerful a factor skin color remains in the everyday lives of young black women. Author JeffriAnne Wilder conducted interviews with dozens of young black women about the role of colorism in their everyday lives. Collectively, these findings offer a compelling empirical and theoretical analysis of colorism in key areas of 21st-century life, including within family and school settings, in the media, and in intimate relationships.

The culmination of nearly two decades of the author’s deep entrenchment in colorism studies, Color Stories: Black Women and Colorism in the 21st Century provides a new perspective on a controversial issue that has been a part of black culture and academic study for generations by exploring how the contemporary nature of colorism—from Facebook to the First Lady to Beyoncé—impacts the ideas and experiences of black women. This work serves as essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about the historical and contemporary significance of colorism in modern-day America, regardless of the reader’s race, sex, or age.

Features

• Presents a contemporary sociological analysis of the issue of skin-tone prejudice and discrimination and the unique social and cultural implications for black women in today’s society
• Provides readers with a vocabulary for understanding and discussing the unique features and characteristics of colorism in the 21st century
• Supplies scholarly analysis balanced with thought-provoking testimony from more than 60 black women between the ages of 18 and 25 on how color matters in their daily lives
• Offers concrete strategies for change and empowerment in dismantling the paradigm of colorism

Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles

Scarecrow Press (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)
January 1998
298 pages
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57886-001-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4617-0708-0

James Overmyer, Member
Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research

The first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there was no one like Effa Manley in the sports world of the 1930s and 1940s. She was a sophisticated woman who owned a baseball team. She never shrank from going head to head with men, who dominated the ranks of sports executives and considered sports their exclusive domain. That her life story has remained unchronicled can only be attributed to one thing: her team, the Newark Eagles, belonged to the Negro Baseball League.

This book furthers a growing awareness of black baseball before integration and profiles many of the other highly-competitive owners in the Negro league. It also describes a thriving black community in Newark that took the Newark Eagles into their hearts, creating a fascinating relationship between a community and their sports team.

This book was the first to draw extensively on Eagle team records, left behind by Mrs. Manley when she left Newark in the 1950s, and rediscovered nearly intact thirty-five years later. The files are the most comprehensive source of information about the Newark Eagles. They reconstruct the relationship between the baseball team and the community to an extent never thought to be possible. Also included is material from Mrs. Manley’s scrapbook chronicling her days as a baseball owner and an active home front volunteer during World War II. Her scrapbook is now part of the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This important work shines the spotlight on a previously unsung segment of baseball history.

Originally published in cloth as Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles, No. 1 in the American Sports History Series.

Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave

Oxford University Press
2008-07-28
192 pages
21 illus.
5 1/2 X 8 1/4 inches
Hardcover ISBN: 9780195343311
Paperback ISBN: 9780195343328

William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor of English; Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Regina E. Mason, Grimes’s great-great-great-granddaughter

• The first fugitive slave narrative in American history
• A candid, unfiltered, and fully authenticated account of both slavery and so-called freedom in the antebellum U.S. before the advent of the American antislavery movement
• A unprecedented editorial partnership blending scholarship and family history to yield a unique modern edition of a neglected classic of antislavery literature
• No other slave narrative has been recovered, researched, and annotated by a slave’s descendent until now

Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave is the first fugitive slave narrative in American history. Because Grimes wrote and published his narrative on his own, without deference to white editors, publishers, or sponsors, his Life has an immediacy, candor, and no-holds-barred realism unparalleled in the famous antebellum slave narratives of the period. This edition of Grimes’s autobiography represents a historic partnership between noted scholar of the African American slave narrative, William L. Andrews, and Regina Mason, Grimes’s great-great-great-granddaughter. Their extensive historical and genealogical research has produced an authoritative, copiously annotated text that features pages from an original Grimes family Bible, transcriptions of the 1824 correspondence that set the terms for the author’s self-purchase in Connecticut (nine years after his escape from Savannah, Georgia), and many other striking images that invoke the life and times of William Grimes.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction by William L. Andrews
• Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave
• Chronology: the life and times of William Grimes
• Afterword by Regina E. Mason

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition

Wiley
December 2015
832 pages
7.2 x 1.7 x 9.6 inches
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1119084303

Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education
Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York

David Sue, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington

The standard bearing guide for multicultural counseling courses now enhanced with research-based, topical, and pedagogical refinements

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition is the new update to the seminal work on multicultural counseling. From author Derald Wing Sue – one of the most cited multicultural scholars in the United States – this comprehensive work includes current research, cultural and scientific theoretical formations, and expanded exploration of internalized racism. Replete with real-world examples, this book explains why conversations revolving around racial issues remain so difficult, and provides specific techniques and advice for leading forthright and productive discussions. The new edition focuses on essential instructor and student needs to facilitate a greater course-centric focus.

In response to user feedback and newly available research, the seventh edition reflects:

• Renewed commitment to comprehensiveness. As compared to other texts in the field, CCD explores and covers nearly all major multicultural counseling topics in the profession. Indeed, reviewers believed it the most comprehensive of the texts published, and leads in coverage of microaggressions in counseling, interracial/interethnic counseling, social justice approaches to counseling, implications of indigenous healing, the sociopolitical nature of counseling, racial identity development, and cultural use of evidence-based practice.
• Streamlined Presentation to allow students more time to review and analyze rather than read more detailed text
• New advances and important changes, such as expanded coverage of internalized racism, cultural humility, expansion of microaggression coverage to other marginalized groups, social justice/advocacy skills, recent research and thinking on evidence-based practice, and new approaches to work with specific populations.
• Most current work in multicultural mental health practice including careful consideration of the multicultural guidelines proposed by the American Psychological Association and the draft guidelines for Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) (2015) from the American Counseling Association’s Revision Committee.
• Expanded attention to the emotive nature of the content so that the strong emotive reaction of students to the material does not prevent self-exploration (a necessary component of cultural competence in the helping professions).
• Strengthened Pedagogy in each chapter with material to facilitate experiential activities and discussion and to help students digest the material including broad Chapter Objectives and more specific and oftentimes controversial Reflection and Discussion Questions. Every chapter opens with a clinical vignette, longer narrative, or situational example that previews the major concepts and issues discussed in the chapter. The Chapter Focus Questions serve as prompts to address the opening ‘course objectives,’ but these questions not only preview the content to be covered, but are cast in such a way as to allow instructors and trainers to use them as discussion questions throughout the course or workshop. We have retained the ‘Implications for Clinical Practice’ sections and added a new Summary after every chapter. Instructor’s Handbook has been strengthen and expanded to provide guidance on teaching the course, anticipating resistances, overcoming them, and providing exercises that could be used such as case studies, videos/movies, group activities, tours/visits, and other pedagogy that will facilitate learning.
• Easier comparison between and among groups made possible by updating population specific chapters to use common topical headings (when possible).

Offering the perfect blend of theory and practice, this classic text helps readers overcome the discomfort associated with discussions of race, provides real-world examples of how to discuss diversity and difference openly and honestly, and closely examines the hidden and unwritten rules that dictate many aspects of diversity in today’s world.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• About the Authors
• Section One the Multiple Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
  • Part I: The Affective and Conceptual Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 1 Obstacles to Cultural Competence: Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training
      • Emotional Self-Revelations and Fears: Majority Group Members
      • Emotional Invalidation versus Affirmation: For Marginalized Group Members
      • A Word of Caution
      • Recognizing and Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training: For Trainees and Trainers
      • Cognitive Resistance—Denial
      • Emotional Resistance
      • Behavioral Resistance
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 2 The Superordinate Nature of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Culture Universal (Etic) versus Culture Specific (Emic) Formulations
      • The Nature of Multicultural Counseling Competence
      • A Tripartite Framework for Understanding the Multiple Dimensions of Identity
      • Individual and Universal Biases in Psychology and Mental Health
      • The Impact of Group Identities on Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • What Is Multicultural Counseling/Therapy?
      • What Is Cultural Competence?
      • Cultural Humility and Cultural Competence
      • Social Justice and Cultural Competence
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 3 Multicultural Counseling Competence for Counselors and Therapists of Marginalized Groups
      • Counselors from Marginalized Groups Working with Majority and Other Marginalized Group Clients
      • The Politics of Interethnic and Interracial Bias and Discrimination
      • The Historical and Political Relationships between Groups of Color
      • Differences between Racial/Ethnic Groups
      • Counselors of Color and Dyadic Combinations
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part II The Political Dimensions of Mental Health Practice
    • Chapter 4 The Political and Social Justice Implications of Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • The Education and Training of Mental Health Professionals
      • Definitions of Mental Health
      • Counseling and Mental Health Literature
      • Need to Treat Social Problems—Social Justice Counseling
      • The Foci of Therapeutic Interventions: Individual, Professional, Organizational and Societal
      • Social Justice Counseling
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 5 Impact of Systemic Oppression
      • Therapist Credibility and Client Worldviews
      • The Rest of the Story
      • Therapist Credibility and Attractiveness
      • Formation of Individual and Systemic Worldviews
      • Formation of Worldviews
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 6 Microaggressions in Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • Contemporary Forms of Oppression
      • Evolution of the “Isms”: Microaggressions
      • The Dynamics and Dilemmas of Microaggressions
      • Therapeutic Implications
      • Summary
  • Part III The Practice Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling/Therapy
    • Chapter 7 Barriers to Multicultural Counseling and Therapy: Individual and Family Perspectives
      • Identifying Multicultural Therapeutic Issues
      • Generic Characteristics of Counseling/Therapy
      • Culture-Bound Values
      • Class-Bound Values
      • Language Barriers
      • Patterns of “American” Cultural Assumptions and Multicultural Family Counseling/Therapy
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 8 Culturally Appropriate Intervention Skills and Strategies
      • Cultural Expression of Mental Disorders
      • Communication Styles
      • Sociopolitical Facets of Nonverbal Communication
      • Counseling and Therapy as Communication Style
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 9 Multicultural Evidence-Based Practice
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Multiculturalism
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Diversity Issues in Therapy
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 10 Non-Western Indigenous Methods of Healing: Implications for Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Legitimacy of Culture-Bound Syndromes: Nightmare Deaths and the Hmong Sudden Death Phenomenon
      • The Principles of Indigenous Healing
      • Conclusion
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part IV Racial/Cultural Identity Development in Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 11 Racial/Cultural Identity Development in People of Color: Therapeutic Implications
      • Racial Awakening
      • Racial/Cultural Identity Development Models
      • A Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model
      • Therapeutic Implications of the R/ CID Model
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 12 White Racial Identity Development: Therapeutic Implications
      • What Does It Mean to Be White?
      • The Invisible Whiteness of Being
      • Understanding the Dynamics of Whiteness
      • Models of White Racial Identity Development
      • The Process of White Racial Identity Development: A Descriptive Model
      • Developing a Nonracist and Antiracist White Identity
      • Summary
• Section Two Multicultural Counseling and Specific Populations
  • Part V Understanding Specific Populations
    • Chapter 13 Culturally Competent Assessment
      • Therapist Variables Affecting Diagnosis
      • Cultural Competence and Preventing Diagnostic Errors
      • Contextual and Collaborative Assessment
      • Infusing Cultural Competence into Standard Clinical Assessments
      • References
  • Part VI Counseling and Therapy with Racial/Ethnic Minority Group Populations
    • Chapter 14 Counseling African Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 15 Counseling American Indians and Alaska Natives
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • Alcohol and Substance Abuse
      • References
    • Chapter 16 Counseling Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 17 Counseling Latinos
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 18 Counseling Individuals of Multiracial Descent
      • Multiracialism in the United States
      • Specific Challenges
      • A Multiracial Bill of Rights
      • Multiracial Strengths
      • References
  • Part VII Counseling and Special Circumstances Involving Racial/Ethnic Populations
    • Chapter 19 Counseling Arab and Muslim Americans
      • Arab Americans
      • Muslim Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 20 Counseling Jewish Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 21 Counseling Immigrants and Refugees
      • Challenges and Strengths
      • Counseling Refugees
      • References
  • Part VIII Counseling and Therapy with Other Multicultural Populations
    • Chapter 22 Counseling LGBT Individuals
      • Understanding Sexual Minorities
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 23 Counseling Older Adult Clients
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges of Older Adults
      • References
    • Chapter 24 Counseling Women
      • Specific Challenges
      • Embracing Gender Strengths
      • References
    • Chapter 25 Counseling and Poverty
      • Demographics: Who Are the Poor?
      • Strengths of People Living in Poverty
      • Suggested Guidelines for Counselors
      • References
    • Chapter 26 Counseling Persons with Disabilities
      • Understanding Disabilities
      • The Americans with Disabilities Act
      • Specific Challenges
      • Supports for Individuals with Disabilities
      • Counseling Issues with Individuals with Disabilities
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index

The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome

Beacon Press
2016-01-12
216pages
6 x 9 Inches
Cloth ISBN: 978-080703301-2

Alondra Nelson, Dean of Social Science; Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies
Columbia University, New York, New York

The unexpected story of how genetic testing is affecting race in America

We know DNA is a master key that unlocks medical and forensic secrets, but its genealogical life is both revelatory and endlessly fascinating. Tracing genealogy is now the second-most popular hobby amongst Americans, as well as the second-most visited online category. This billion-dollar industry has spawned popular television shows, websites, and Internet communities, and a booming heritage tourism circuit.

The tsunami of interest in genetic ancestry tracing from the African American community has been especially overwhelming. In The Social Life of DNA, Alondra Nelson takes us on an unprecedented journey into how the double helix has wound its way into the heart of the most urgent contemporary social issues around race.

For over a decade, Nelson has deeply studied this phenomenon. Artfully weaving together keenly observed interactions with root-seekers alongside illuminating historical details and revealing personal narrative, she shows that genetic genealogy is a new tool for addressing old and enduring issues. In The Social Life of DNA, she explains how these cutting-edge DNA-based techniques are being used in myriad ways, including grappling with the unfinished business of slavery: to foster reconciliation, to establish ties with African ancestral homelands, to rethink and sometimes alter citizenship, and to make legal claims for slavery reparations specifically based on ancestry.

Nelson incisively shows that DNA is a portal to the past that yields insight for the present and future, shining a light on social traumas and historical injustices that still resonate today. Science can be a crucial ally to activism to spur social change and transform twenty-first-century racial politics. But Nelson warns her readers to be discerning: for the social repair we seek can’t be found in even the most sophisticated science. Engrossing and highly original, The Social Life of DNA is a must-read for anyone interested in race, science, history and how our reckoning with the past may help us to chart a more just course for tomorrow.