Race

“Of the East India Breed …”: The First South Asians in British North America

by Brinda Charry

The known records of the first south Asian people in Virginia are not voluminous, but they direct our attention to the complexities of racial identity in early America and the global networks of trade and labor that would make the British Empire. 

Claiming a Latino Place in Chicago

by Mike Amezcua

Like their African American contemporaries, ethnic Mexicans in Chicago have a long history of organizing to overturn residential segregation. 

Francesca Morgan Dissects the American Obsession with Genealogy

by Thomas Laqueur

Questions about how Americans practice genealogy are in some ways less interesting that questions about why they do; all genealogies are ways of constructing pasts that explain and justify the present, and in America they are impossible to disentangle from racism. 

Should the Census Consider Latinos a "Race"?

by Geraldo Cadava

Although major Latino civil rights organizations have endorsed a proposal to combine two census questions and make "Hispanic or Latino" a racial category. Afro-Latino/a advocates say that this would make it impossible to evaluate internal divisions around skin color and ancestry. 

A Writer Reflects on Four Enlightening and Challenging Lunches with the Father of Black Liberation Theology

by J. Chester Johnson

The author shared Arkansas roots with the influential theologian and teacher, from opposite sides of the color line. Their exchanges showed the possibilities of reconciliation and the height of the barriers created by racism in Americans' shared history.

On Gates and Curran's "Who's Black and Why"

by John Samuel Harpham

"Like all ideas, race has a history. There was a time before it. In turn conceptions of it have shifted over time, and it has been charged with different meanings in different settings." Gates and Curran have identified a little-studied collection of 1739 essays on race that mark a key shift in the idea.

Clarifying the Census Bureau's Accounting of "White" Identity Puts Demographic Change in Perspective

by Morris Levy, Richard Alba and Dowell Myers

The 2020 Census seemed to show the white population was in freefall. But few questioned whether differences between the 2010 and 2020 censuses reflected real demographic change or simply statistical noise as the the Census makes incomplete progress toward accounting for multiracial identity.

I'm a Black Woman Who's Met All the Standards for Promotion. I'm Not Waiting to Reward Myself

by Koritha Mitchell

A professor approaching promotion says that racism and sexism in the academy presents psychological burdens that women faculty of color must overcome by practicing purposeful self-care and not waiting for external validation. 

Why the Virus Is a Civil Rights Issue: ‘The Pain Will Not Be Shared Equally’

First came early data showing that the coronavirus affected African-Americans disproportionately. Then came the fight for a fair response and recovery.

Pete Buttigieg’s race problem

by Tyler D. Parry

He doesn’t truly understand the problems plaguing black America and their racist roots.

Universities must open their archives and share their oppressive pasts

by Evadne Kelly and Carla Rice

The archives of academic institutions can tell previously untold stories of eugenics. Universities can begin to undo oppressive legacies by opening them to artists and communities.

The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration’

by Michelle Alexander

From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in deep denial.

The Radical Lives of Abolitionists

by Britt Rusert

History has tended to sanitize the lives of abolitionists, many of whom were involved in other radical movements as well, including Free Love, which promoted women’s independence and an end to traditional marriage. A review of Holly Jackson's American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation.

The Neighborhoods We Will Not Share

by Richard Rothstein

Persistent housing segregation lies at the root of many of our society’s problems. Trump wants to make it worse.

What Dreams of Canada Tell Us About Race in America

by April Rosenblum

At a time when American casualties in Vietnam were disproportionately African American, most of those who successfully made it to Canada to resist the draft were white.

Confederate Monuments in National Perspective

by Thomas J. Brown

Northern monuments established a foundation for the argument that Confederate military service deserves recognition although rendered in a deplorable cause.

Memo from a historian: White ladies cooking in plantation museums are a denial of history

by Kelley Fanto Deetz

I spent a decade researching and writing about enslaved plantation cooks and lecture on the topic at historic sites.

Professor Removed Then Reinstated Over Discussion on Race

Louisiana Tech University briefly removed an instructor of history from teaching over class discussions on race and other topics before reinstating him this month.

The Problem with Ken Burns' Country Music

by Peter LaChapelle

What would a Country Music that deals with country music’s complicated and often problematic political history look like?

History Has a Race Problem, and It’s Existential

by Allison Miller

White people dominate the study of history, as students and as those who earn PhDs.