Donate or Join | Boston Review

A Political and Literary Forum

Menu Search
Donate Shop Join

Race

Law & Justice, Politics

How Nations Heal

We cannot simply put the past behind us. The framework of transitional justice offers a promising path forward.

Colleen Murphy

Reading Lists

What White Supremacy Is and Isn’t

It’s what our country was founded on—and it will take more than Trump leaving the White House to dismantle it. 

Boston Review, Rosie Gillies

Philosophy & Religion, Race

Whiteness Is the Greatest Racial Fraud

The Krugs and Dolezals dominate the headlines, but they are distractions from the fraud that imperils us all: believing oneself to be white.

Luvell Anderson

Politics, Race

The Fight Ahead

The Republican Party has become a white nationalist party. If old fashioned politics can’t change that, we must consider alternatives.

Bernard E. Harcourt

Race

Caste Does Not Explain Race

The celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste’ reflects the continued priority of elite preferences over the needs and struggles of ordinary people.

Charisse Burden-Stelly

Arts in Society

Witnessing Grace

In ‘Be Holding,’ celebrated poet Ross Gay interweaves the legacy of one of basketball’s greatest moments with a meditation on Black resilience.

Eric Morales-Franceschini

Race, Science & Nature

Racism and Respiration

COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black communities is just one of many respiratory inequities shaped by systemic racism.

Adam Gaffney

Politics

Is There a War on Thanksgiving?

Some on the right insist that efforts to curtail Thanksgiving are in reality sinister attempts to rewrite the country’s history.

Jonathan Beecher Field

Arts in Society

The Mythic Whiteness of the Hillbilly

Ron Howard’s Netflix adaptation of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ continues a long tradition of seeing hillbillies as a symbol of pristine American whiteness. It’s the same nostalgia Trump has mobilized on the far right.

Ellen Wayland-Smith

Race

Racial Identity & Racial Fraud

In this new series, philosophers reflect on the meaning of racial fraud, exploring its stakes—ethical and political, social and historical—and what it tells about the legacy and lived experience of racial injustice.

Boston Review

Gender & Sexuality, Philosophy & Religion

Why We Shouldn't Compare Transracial to Transgender Identity

Unlike gender inequality, racial inequality primarily accumulates across generations. Transracial identification undermines collective reckoning with that injustice.

Robin Dembroff, Dee Payton

Politics, Race

I Don't Have to Forgive Joe Biden

We should condemn the president-elect’s record on race, but that does not foreclose hope for his administration.

Christopher Lebron

Pages

       

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox

Love Boston Review?

Then you’ll love our new membership program! Join us to support engaged discussion on critical issues. You’ll also enjoy exclusive membership benefits.
Get Started

Copyright © 1993-2021 Boston Review and its authors.

Support Boston Review

Become a Member

Make a tax-deductible donation today

Boston Review Printing Note: For best printing results try turning on any options your web browser's print dialog makes available for printing backgrounds and background graphics.