Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America - Hardcover

Higginbotham, F. Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814737471 ISBN 13: 9780814737477

Publisher: NYU Press, 2013

Synopsis

A provocative, and timely, solution for ridding America of the traces of Jim Crow policies to create a truly post-racial landscape

When America inaugurated its first African American president, in 2009, many wondered if the country had finally become a "post-racial" society. Was this the dawning of a new era, in which America, a nation nearly severed in half by slavery, and whose racial fault lines are arguably among its most enduring traits, would at last move beyond race with the election of Barack Hussein Obama?

In Ghosts of Jim Crow, F. Michael Higginbotham convincingly argues that America remains far away from that imagined utopia. Indeed, the shadows of Jim Crow era laws and attitudes continue to perpetuate insidious, systemic prejudice and racism in the 21st century. Higginbotham’s extensive research demonstrates how laws and actions have been used to maintain a racial paradigm of hierarchy and separation―both historically, in the era of lynch mobs and segregation, and today―legally, economically, educationally and socially.

Using history as a roadmap, Higginbotham arrives at a provocative solution for ridding the nation of Jim Crow’s ghost, suggesting that legal and political reform can successfully create a post-racial America, but only if it inspires whites and Blacks to significantly alter behaviors and attitudes of race-based superiority and victimization. He argues that America will never achieve its full potential unless it truly enters a post-racial era, and believes that time is of the essence as competition increases globally.

About this title

About the Author

F. Michael Higginbotham is Dean Joseph Curtis Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. He is the author of Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions.

Reviews

Using the fiftieth anniversary of the 1954 Brown decision as his focus, legal-scholar Higginbotham addresses the legacy of America’s racial past and its impact on race equity today. What he wants is a new conversation on race that acknowledges the old paradigm of whites at the top and blacks at the bottom of a racial hierarchy, a model that continues to this day. Higginbotham reviews the history of slavery and Jim Crow–legalized segregation and its contemporary adaptations, with the objective of dismantling the old model that is manifested in significant black separation. He focuses on false notions of white superiority, black separation and white isolation, and black victimization. Changes in the law now place proof of disparate impact over proof of intent and go beyond the employment arena, but Higginbotham argues that we must consider our racial history and legal practices that continue to reduce racial inequality. If the courts and the nation as a whole valued racial diversity as a compelling state interest, affirmative action would be seen as an active tool to reduce racial isolation, which undercuts the pursuit of racial equity. --Vernon Ford

Edition details

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814737471
• ISBN 13: 9780814737477
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 326