Say It Loud by Randall Kennedy

This is a tough read. The author makes clear, over and over again, in the 29 essays collected here, by implication or sometimes by stating it, that he is not optimistic about race relations. He spends a lot of time here pointing out where people are wrong in their things, all the while carving out a middle road between left- and right-wing political positions that non-extremists could comfortably accept. He recognizes the persistent racial injustice in America and criticizes a conservative Supreme Court for crippling some of our social advancements. Yet he does not follow liberals in their calls to abolish the police, denounce all references and statues of past racists on campuses or penalize instructors who enunciate “nigger” for pedagogical purposes. He correctly notes that there is a “double sidedness of policing” — Black people in this country are paradoxically both over- and under-policed. He has a whole a chapter devoted to the topic of black pride —which he argues is problematic because one should not feel pride in something one inherits. Just as it is inappropriate for the rich to feel pride in their inherited wealth, so too is it inappropriate for anyone to feel pride in their inherited race. Personal achievement, he posits, is the correct token for pride. And personal achievement he has in excess--what isn't to be found is any ray of hope that there might be a way out of this, that we might find a path.