"Transcending the Color Line", by sociologist and professor Bobby E. Mills, PhD, represents a philosophical attempt to make sense out of American black collective experience. This collection of essays does not reflect traditional sociological perspectives and methodological considerations. Instead, the query is: How do we live? More importantly, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to live the way we say we want to live? In other words, these essays dig deeper to the moral and spiritual issues that lie beneath the more obvious sociological ones. Invariably the search for moral understanding and spiritual meaning is neither easy nor popular. Yet it is the abstract, empirical (amoral and apolitical) character of traditional sociology that has all but rendered it irrelevant to the resolution of contemporary social ills. The biased theoretical assumptions of the scientific method (i.e., abstract empiricism) are the social basis for the collective bias otherwise known as the illusion of value neutrality. This collective cultural bias is the social foundation for institutional racism, sexism, theological dogmatism (i.e., denominationalism), and above all, authoritarianism. Indeed, every "ism" is a schism, and schisms divide. Our either/or logic fosters cultural extremism rather than a universal perspective on humanity. By digging deep to the true source of our sociological and leadership issues, these essays not only call black and white individuals accountable to the dysfunction present in our shared social experience, but inspire all people to transcend the color line and become part of the solution.

A moral and philosophical approach to the stubborn problem of racism. Transcending the Color Line by sociologist and professor Bobby E. Mills, PhD, represents a philosophical attempt to make sense out of American black collective experience. These essays do not reflect traditional sociological perspectives and methodological considerations. Instead, the query is: How do we live? And more importantly, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to live the way we say we want to live? In other words, this collection digs deeper into the moral and spiritual issues that lie beneath the more obvious sociological ones. Invariably the search for moral understanding and spiritual meaning is neither easy nor popular. Yet it is the abstract, empirical (amoral and apolitical) character of traditional sociology that has all but rendered it irrelevant to the resolution of contemporary social ills. The biased theoretical assumptions of the scientific method (i.e., abstract empiricism) are the social basis for the collective bias otherwise known as the illusion of value neutrality. This collective cultural bias is the social foundation for institutional racism, sexism, theological dogmatism (i.e., denominationalism), and above all, authoritarianism. Indeed, every “ism” is a schism, and schisms divide. Our either/or logic fosters cultural extremism rather than a universal perspective on humanity. By digging deep to the true source of our sociological and leadership issues, these essays not only call black and white individuals accountable to the dysfunction present in our shared social experience, but inspire all people to transcend the color line and become part of the solution.

This work reaches across the colour line to examine how race, gender, class and individual subjectivity shaped the lives of black and white women in the 19th- and 20th-century American South.

A Time “Must-Read” Book of 2019 “[Williams] is so honest and fresh in his observations, so skillful at blending his own story with larger principles, that it is hard not to admire him.” —Andrew Solomon, New York Times Book Review (front page) The son of a “black” father and a “white” mother, Thomas Chatterton Williams found himself questioning long-held convictions about race upon the birth of his blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter—and came to realize that these categories cannot adequately capture either of them, or anyone else. In telling the story of his family’s multigenerational transformation from what is called black to what is assumed to be white, he reckons with the way we choose to see and define ourselves. Self-Portrait in Black and White is a beautifully written, urgent work for our time.

The classic refutation of scientific racism from the renowned African American journalist and author of Africa’s Gift to America. In Nature Knows No Color-Line, originally published in 1952, historian Joel Augustus Rogers examines the origins of racial hierarchy and the color problem. Rogers was a humanist who believed that there were no scientifically evident racial divisions—all humans belong to one “race.” He believed that color prejudice generally evolved from issues of domination and power between two physiologically different groups. According to Rogers, color prejudice was then used a rationale for domination, subjugation and warfare. Societies developed myths and prejudices in order to pursue their own interests at the expense of other groups. This book argues that many instances of the contributions of black people had been left out of the history books, and gives many examples. “Most contemporary college students have never heard of J.A Rogers nor are they aware of his long journalistic career and pioneering archival research. Rogers committed his life to fighting against racism and he had a major influence on black print culture through his attempts to improve race relations in the United States and challenge white supremacist tracts aimed at disparaging the history and contributions of people of African descent to world civilizations.” —Thabiti Asukile, “Black International Journalism, Archival Research and Black Print Culture,” The Journal of African American History

Color Outside the Lines brings together diverse, talented YA voices, including Samira Ahmed, Adam Silvera, Anna-Marie McLemore, Lori Lee, and Elsie Chapman, to reflect on interracial relationships. While focusing predominantly on POC voices, the anthology also includes LGBTQ+, religious, minority, and disability intersectionality, and it's stories range in tone and genre, from light-hearted contemporary to darker fantasy.

Martin Luther King, Jr once said, ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character'. This is one of the aspirations many had when they fought against racism. They understood that for this aspiration to succeed everyone must participate in the project of completely transforming society to eradicate racial divisions and achieve equal treatment. Today, with the increasing demand to recognize the seemingly insurmountable gap between black people and white people, identity-based anti-racism has become more of a hindrance than a solution for a better and freer world for us all. The shift, from aspiring to transform social organization in order to transcend racial divisions to demanding recognition of racial divisions and identities and protection for minorities, represents the defeat of the universalist and radical politics of the past. Racial thinking, actively promoted by racists, has now become an acceptable tool for identity-based anti-racist activists in their demand for representation, diversity, inclusivity, segregation and safe spaces. Christine Louis-Dit-Sully examines the origins of racial thinking and the relationship between race and culture, she asks us to recognise that racial thinking is not the only way of understanding ourselves and the world around us.