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sethdmichaels.bsky.social · @sethdmichaels.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life 8/10

Brain-bendy in the manner of those optical illusions where you think you're seeing a vase and then you realize it's two faces and you can't unsee the faces. The overall theme is that "racism" isn't a problem caused by "race," but rather the opposite - "race" is a concept used to justify and offer a basis for "racism." A very academic and sociological but sharply and brightly argued series of essays, challenging and eye-opening, drawing on foundational sociologists like Durkheim, DuBois and Weber to explain how race isn't some pre-existing fact about the world, but rather a retroactive justification for oppression. The comparison with "witchcraft" is quite deliberate and even explicitly spelled out in one essay. What the authors do very successfully is *describe* how their ideas operate in practice, and the ideological implications, without having to point out that the net effect of "racecraft" is monstrous, leading to not just absurdity but real suffering and violence. Highly recommend.

#book

Published 2026-08-18 17:03 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere