The Persistence of the Color Line by Randall Kennedy

The Persistence of the Color Line by Randall Kennedy

A "provocative and richly insightful new book" (The New York Times Book Review) that gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency.

Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy now tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama's presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama's achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice.

Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama's triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.

Michael R. Kennedy is Randall Kennedy. Harvard Law School's Klein Professor of Law Princeton University awarded him an undergraduate degree, and Yale University awarded him a law degree. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and served as a clerk to Supreme Court Judge Thurgood Marshall. He is the author of six books, including Race, Crime, and the Law, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Prize.

The Kennedy Book Prize is given to the best book published in the United States He lives in Massachusetts and is a member of the Supreme Court of the United States and the District of Columbia bars, as well as the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.