We Gon' Be Alright Notes on Race and Resegregation [Paperback]

THE SMARTEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (THE WASHINGTON POST)

In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Cant Stop Wont Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism,We Gon Be Alrightlinks #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington D.C., the Great Migration to resurgent nativism. Chang explores the rise and fall of the idea of diversity, the roots of student protest, changing ideas about Asian Americanness, and the impact of a century of racial separation in housing. He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and cultural equity.

CONTENTS

Introduction: The Crisis Cycle
Is Diversity for White People? On Fearmongering, Picture Taking, and Avoidance
What a Time to Be Alive: On Student Protest
The Odds: On Cultural Equity
Vanilla Cities and Their Chocolate Suburbs: On Resegregation
Hands Up: On Ferguson
The In-Betweens: On Asian Americanness
Conclusion: Making Lemonade

There is history and analysis in these pages, and there is life and experience, too, but neither form of storytelling overpowers the other. Instead, what comes through most clearly is a versatile mind in the service of a painful and protracted story, an author who ral#§