Keepin' It Real

Essays on Race in Contemporary America

By (author) Elwood David Watson

Publication date:

15 October 2019

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

230x152mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781789380507

The past decade has been one of the most racially turbulent periods in the modern era, as the complicated breakthrough of the Obama presidency gave way to the racially charged campaigning and eventual governing of Donald Trump. Keepin' It Real presents a wide-ranging group of essays that take on key aspects of the current landscape surrounding racial issues in America, including the place of the Obamas, the rise of the alt-right and White nationalism, Donald Trump, Colin Kaepernick and the backlash against his protests, Black Lives Matter, sexual politics in the black community and much more. 

America's racial problems aren't going away any time soon. Keepin' It Real serves as a marker of the arguments raging right now, and an argument for the changes that need to be made to become the better nation it has long imagined itself to be.  

'A raw study of racism. [...] The book's structure and wide range of subjects are admirable. Watson fits an impressive range of content into every short chapter without producing underdeveloped critiques. [...] He deftly aligns his essays to show how repeated patterns have been normalized, and argues that racism is a permanent and intrinsic component of the United States. In this way, Keepin' It Real might be compared to Derrick Bell's Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. Watson adeptly weaves pop culture and news into his observations. [...] Keepin' It Real is a reminder to non-Black readers that it is easy to praise conveniently selected pieces of a culture that is tied to a different race when we do not have to live their everyday struggle.'