Christine Louis-Dit-Sully examines the origins of racial thinking and the relationship between race and culture, asking us to recognise that racial thinking is not the only way of understanding ourselves and the world around us.
Christine Louis-Dit-Sully examines the origins of racial thinking and the relationship between race and culture, asking us to recognise that racial thinking is not the only way of understanding ourselves and the world around us.
Black studies (global), Commentary & opinion, Social history
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.
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Transcending Racial Divisions may get some readers’ blood boiling, but Louis-Dit-Sully would be nonplussed. To her, justice for all will only be achieved through energetic engagement and vigorous debate of our cherished ideals. ~ Genevieve A. Chornenski, C.Med, C.Arb, ADR Update Newsletter, Issue 108, Fall-Winter 2021
It is therefore refreshing to read Christine Louis Dit-Sully’s sharp polemic, Transcending Racial Divisions: Will You Stand By Me?. The book is a well-written, impressive analysis of contemporary racial thinking and identity politics and of their historical precedents. It is also a humanist critique of identity-based anti-racism, a movement which, instead of challenging racial thinking, has emphasised it and abandoned the goal of eliminating racial divisions (...) It is a passionate cri de cœur advocating a politics based on humanism, universalism, individual agency and the use of reason to alter the human condition. ~ Ralph Leonard, British-Nigerian writer who writes on international politics, religion, culture and humanism, Areo magazine
In Transcending Racial Divisions, the humanist thinker argues against the ascendant school of anti-racist thought, which she believes encourages racial essentialism (...) Transcending Racial Divisions is a thought-provoking analysis of identity politics – and a call for other ways of thinking about race. ~ Tara Henley, The Globe and Mail
Brilliant book. Easy to understand and very impressive analysis of modern identity politics and the history of race. ~ Jackson Park, Amazon.co.uk
