Race Matters, 25th Anniversary cover art

Race Matters, 25th Anniversary

With a New Introduction

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Race Matters, 25th Anniversary

By: Cornel West
Narrated by: Cornel West, JD Jackson
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About this listen

 The twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of the groundbreaking classic, with a new introduction

First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, Race Matters became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. This classic treatise on race contains Dr. West’s most incisive essays on the issues relevant to black Americans, including the crisis in leadership in the Black community, Black conservatism, Black-Jewish relations, myths about Black sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. The insights Dr. West brings to these complex problems remain relevant, provocative, creative, and compassionate.

In a new introduction for the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Dr. West argues that we are in the midst of a spiritual blackout characterized by imperial decline, racial animosity, and unchecked brutality and terror as seen in Baltimore, Ferguson, and Charlottesville. Calling for a moral and spiritual awakening, Dr. West finds hope in the collective and visionary resistance exemplified by the Movement for Black Lives, Standing Rock, and the Black freedom tradition.

Now more than ever, Race Matters is an essential book for all Americans, helping us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium. Americas Black & African American Freedom & Security Philosophy Politics & Government Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences United States Discrimination Social justice Capitalism Equality Socialism Human Rights

Critic reviews

“As moving as any of the sermons of the Rev. Martin Luther King, as profound as W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, as exhilarating in their offering of liberation as James Baldwin’s early essays.”
—David Nicholson, Washington Post Book World

“Cornel West is one of the most authentic, brilliant, prophetic, and healing voices in America today. We ignore his truth in Race Matters at our personal and national peril.”
—Marian Wright Edelman

“Exciting . . . illuminating . . . West’s thinking consistently challenges the conventional wisdom [and] confronts the reader with profound and unsettling insights.”
—Robert S. Boynton, Newsday

“A compelling blend of philosophy, sociology and political commentary . . . It directly takes on some of the most volatile issues facing American society today. . . . One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages.”
—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
All stars
Most relevant
This is absolutely required reading for anyone with even an iota of interest in one of society's most vexing issues.

A timeless classic

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I heard about Cornell West from my brother who forward an article discussing the recent BLM protests. My brother said exactly that "one smart dude". My brother studied his MA and race and resistance, a subject and social science I am trying to understand and learn more about. This book is poetry, vast in it's understanding and insight. Cornell West is a leader, committed to inspiring a deeper understanding surrounding zenophobia. I shall be reading more of his books and doing my best to take action for moral and spiritual good of us all.

One smart dude

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