Tricia Rose — Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives - with Rashad Robinson
Watch author Tricia Rose's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
PURCHASE BOOK HERE:
In recent years, condemnations of racism in America have echoed from the streets to corporate boardrooms. At the same time, politicians and commentators fiercely debate racism's very existence. And so, our conversations about racial inequalities remain muddled.
In Metaracism, pioneering scholar Tricia Rose cuts through the noise with a bracing and invaluable new account of what systemic racism actually is, how it works, and how we can fight back. She reveals how--from housing to education to criminal justice--an array of policies and practices connect and interact to produce an even more devastating "metaracism" far worse than the sum of its parts. While these systemic connections can be difficult to see--and are often portrayed as "color-blind"--again and again they function to disproportionately contain, exploit, and punish Black people.
By helping us to comprehend systemic racism's inner workings and destructive impacts, Metaracism shows us also how to break free--and how to create a more just America for us all.
Tricia Rose is Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. A graduate of Yale and Brown she is the author of three books and has received fellowships from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and her research has been funded by the Mellon and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations.
Rose is in conversation with Rashad Robinson, President of Color Of Change, a racial justice organization with more than 7 million members who demonstrate the power of Black communities every single day. Color Of Change uses innovative strategies to bring about lasting change in systems and sectors that affect Black people’s lives. Under Rashad’s leadership, Color Of Change has developed winning strategies for leading the $7 billion advertiser boycott of Facebook, changing how crime, policing and race are represented on TV, winning net neutrality as a civil rights issue, and holding decision-makers accountable to Black communities — from local prosecutors to multinational corporations. Rashad’s analysis, advocacy and activism are featured frequently in a wide range of major media and community media. He also regularly serves as a keynote speaker at events across the country, won a Webby Award for Best Political Podcast, has been a speaker at roundtables convened by both Oprah Winfrey and President Obama, has received several other awards and has authored several published works related to social change. He testified to Congress about regulating Big Tech corporations, and about ensuring racial equity in banking, housing and education, served as Co-Chair of the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder and sits on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
ABOUT THE FEATURED SPEAKER:
Tricia Rose (born October 18, 1962) is a major American sociologist. She is Chancellor’s professor of Africana Studies and is the director of the Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown
University.
Rose's first book, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America published by Wesleyan University Press in 1994, emerged from her groundbreaking doctoral dissertation at Brown on hip hop, sparked national academic recognition of this subculture's legacy. The Village Voice placed it among the top 25 books of 1994, and the Before Columbus Foundation, and in 1995, gave it an American Book Award. Rose is also the first person in the United States to write a doctoral dissertation on hip hop.
Books:
- author, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Wesleyan University Press, 1994)
- author, Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003)
- author, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop—and Why It Matters (Basic Books, 2008)
- author, Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free] ([https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/imprint/basic-books/ Basic Books, 2024)
- contributor and, with Andrew Ross, editor, Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture (Routledge, 1994)
In her keynote address, "Seeing Systemic Racism," Tricia Rose describes systemic racism and reveals one of the ways it manifests in the hyper punishment of Black children in America’s educational system. A question from the audience expresses the pain that comes from experiencing the dehumanizing effects of systemic racism, and Tricia’s response provides hope that we can change it.
"We're being created to normalize systemic racism. That's in our hands. We can undo that." - Tricia Rose
'Seeing Systemic Racism' - Tricia Rose, Brown University
Keynote Address, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Catalyze Conference (National)
April 2023, St. Louis, MO
Attendees: RWJF national Grantees, RWJF President & CEO, Board Members and other Key Stakeholders.
SEE VIDEO BELOW:
CONNECT WITH TRICIA ROSE:
Threads:
“Structural racism in the U.S. is the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamic, historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color.” - Tricia Rose.
In this video, Professor Tricia Rose explains the concept of structural racism and how it operates in the United States. Structural racism operates as an intentional construction in many spheres of society (housing, wealth, criminal justice, education, media, etc.) in ways that reinforce each other and intensify its impact on black and brown people in America. Addressing one issue in isolation, such as ending mass incarceration, will not solve all the interconnected issues of structural racism.
In addition, Rose explains colorblindness, how it is manifested in public narratives, and creates a general and inaccurate perception that race is no longer an impediment to individuals and communities as a whole. She emphasizes that colorblindness inhibits progress towards constructive conversations and actions aimed at addressing structural racism.
This is an edited version of the original 2015 lecture at Brown University:
Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives―and How We Break Free
by Tricia Rose
Basic Books, 2024
[Publication date: March 5, 2024]
The definitive book on how systemic racism in America really works,
revealing the vast and often hidden network of interconnected policies,
practices, and beliefs that combine to devastate Black lives.
In
Metaracism, pioneering scholar Tricia Rose cuts through the noise with a
bracing and invaluable new account of what systemic racism actually is,
how it works, and how we can fight back. She reveals how—from housing
to education to criminal justice—an array of policies and practices
connect and interact to produce an even more devastating “metaracism”
far worse than the sum of its parts. While these systemic connections
can be difficult to see—and are often portrayed as “color-blind”—again
and again they function to disproportionately contain, exploit, and
punish Black people.
