The Afterlife of Race

In The Afterlife of Race, Lionel McPherson demystifies the Western concept of "race" and reframes race ideology in America as a caste device that sponsors absurd pretexts for inherited slavery, enforced segregation, and the wilful nonrepair of historical injustice. This reframing paves the way for an anti-caste vision of social equality that emphasizes the moral importance of Black American national specificity--not general antiracism, identity politics, or diversity "of color." The result is a non-racial, non-exclusionary account of Black political solidarity that would welcome everyone who supports reparative justice for Black American "blacks" as descendants of American slavery.