On Bigotry: Twenty Lessons on How Bigotry Works and What to Do About It

(Hardback)

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Description

We like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry. But what if bigotry isnt a lack of education, but rather a moral code that people live by What if bigotry is a common code of hate to which no community is immune

On Bigotry is a field guide for understanding how bigots think and teach others to think, how bigotry disguises itself, how bigotry teaches people to act politically, and, most importantly, what individuals and communities can do about it. This is an essential read for anyone interested in challenging the spread of bigotry in society, regardless of who engages in it and why.

Reviews

Nicholas Mitchell yanks the hood off bigotry and exposes it for the philosophical, power-hungry, immoral world view it is and not, as popular culture would have us believe, a deficit of understanding that can be cured with education. In remarkably clear and insightful prose, Mitchell provides what might be the most necessary lessons of this worrisome moment: an understanding of how bigotry functions, why it spreads, and, most importantly, how to keep it from spreading further. * Jarvis DeBerry, MSNBC Daily opinion editor *
On Bigotry is a fascinating and provocative book that challenges us to understand bigotry and how it has operated in the past and still operates in the 21st Century. It is up to the reader whether they will take the lessons outlined in this powerful book to heart and drive bigotry to the margins of society or allow it to continue to have a significant foothold in society. * Shawn Leigh Alexander, author of W. E. B. Du Bois: An American Intellectual and Activist *
Mitchells critical insight on bigotry affords a lucid and extremely compelling perspective on a malady that has plagued America throughout its existence. By laying bare the epistemic framework and material consequences of bigotry Mitchell affords all from social theorists and educators to industry leaders and parents indispensable tools for combatting bigotry. * Roland Mitchell, Louisiana State University *
Dr. Mitchell's timely and compelling work is a clarion call to action and provides a road map to understand and confront the toxicity and corrosive power of bigotry. His eminently readable treatise is based in academic rigor and expertise and is simultaneously full of heart and wit. * Aaron Ahlquist, Director of Policy, Southern Division, Anti-Defamation League *
Lively and learned, On Bigotry will fit excitingly into college courses, especially in education. As importantly, given that we are entering a period in which self-education becomes critical in combatting hate, the book will find a home in coffee shops, Sunday schools, reading groups, unions, and wherever readers are trying to make a kinder and more just world. Broad in its conceptualization and deep in its research, Mitchells work is acute on the moments when bigotry bellows, those when it hides, and those when it might be made to give way. * David Roediger, author of An Ordinary White *

Author Bio

Nicholas Ensley Mitchell is an essayist and assistant professor of curriculum studies, courtesy assistant professor of African and African American Studies, and affiliate of the LGBTQ+ Research and Advocacy Center at the University of Kansas.