Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?: 25 Arguments That Won't Go Away

Some arguments about race refuse to go away. It’s time, once and for all, to shatter them.

The most toxic racial arguments share one of five traits. They try to erase Black history, prioritize white victimhood, deny Black oppression, promote myths of Black inferiority, or rebrand racism as something else entirely. They’re all designed to distract society from racial justice, but now we have the tools to debunk them.

With a mixture of personal experience, reportage, and extensive research, Keith Boykin takes a wrecking ball to twenty-five of the most widespread deceptions about race, such as:The Civil War was about states’ rights, not slaveryAffirmative action is reverse discriminationCritical Race Theory is indoctrinating children to hate one another 

and shows us how to refute lies, myths, and misinformation with history, knowledge, and truth.

About the Author

Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award–winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.