The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy

About this book

"Like the canary's distress, which alerted miners to poison in the air, issues of race point to conditions in American society that endanger us all. In this pioneering new book, Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres warn us that we ignore race at our peril, and propose a dramatic, hopeful shift in the way we think about race and put it to political use.". "Ignoring racial differences - color blindness - has failed, they argue. Race and power intertwine at every level of social interaction, from classrooms to courtrooms to congressional districts. Only cross-racial coalitions can expose these embedded hierarchies of privilege and - through innovative power-sharing and democratic engagement - demolish them. The authors call this concept of enlisting race to resist power political race.". "The Miner's Canary tells many illuminating stories of political race in action - among black workers in a North Carolina pork plant, among Hispanic organizers in a Chicago mayoral race, among privileged private school students in Boston, among a coalition of education reformers in Texas. Seamlessly weaving narrative with theory, Guinier and Torres reveal the implications of political race for affirmative action, racial profiling, the war on drugs, livable wages, the education budget, voting reform, and many other current debates.". "The aim of political race is not just to remedy racial injustices. It is to empower people of all races to struggle together at the grassroots level, to improve the life chances of everyone who has been "raced" black, regardless of skin color. In a book that is ultimately both aspirational and inspirational, Guinier and Torres envision a recommitment to social justice that promises not only to revitalize the civil rights movement in America but to transform democracy."--BOOK JACKET.