The History of Politics and Race in America, 1968-Present

By: Candis Watts Smith

Narrated by: Candis Watts and The Great Courses

There’s a pattern to racial politics in America: We move two steps forward, and then one - even two - steps back. Why is it so hard for us, as a society, to embrace the egalitarian and compassionate aspects of our nature?

The answer lies in the intricate links between race, politics, and policy that form what we’ve come to call “structural racism”, a concept that has played out in various domains in the decades since 1968 - in housing and education, in wealth and debt, and in policing and immigration. Structural racism is more than just bigoted slurs and hateful violence; it’s about the role American political institutions play in shaping racial categories and in overseeing the rules, laws, and customs that dictate the allocation of rights and privileges across them.

Candis Watts Smith of Duke University is an expert in how race has shaped our modern political landscape. In her Audible Original, The History of Race and Politics in the US Since 1968, she brings that same expertise to an illuminating 10-lecture look at racial progress (and stagnation) in America. With both sensitivity and intellectual honesty, she explains the power behind racial politics and how it shapes our gut reactions to people, neighborhoods, schools, protesters, and policy initiatives. She also reveals how structural racism connects everything from segregated housing and misallocated health care to unequal wages and poor access to quality education.

©2022 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

Very informative and mind opening.

There is so much to learn on this subject. I thought I was aware and fairly knowledgeable. I was not. Narration was very good.

Draws Past and Present Together

The program is organized in a way that covers the history of each topic into clear view for the non-historian like me.

An excellent tool for educating myself on the workings of structural racism in the United States of North America.

history rhymes

I liked how issues and results, or lack of, were tied to events in politics.

WOW!!! I wish this was taught in primary school!

This podcast is amazing! Candid Watts voice and storytelling ability drew me in immediately and kept me rewinding to hear many parts again.
Candis connects the dots of America’s racism: the origins, the impacts, steps towards equity, and the consistent and evolving strategies of resistance to equity, how it manifests today.
I have been unlearning the racism indoctrinated in me for twenty years and I think about how much harm I have caused, perpetuated, and been complacent in harms and oppressions of Black, Indigenous, and other folx of color.
It makes me mad. If we actually learned about real comprehensive American history, perhaps us white folx would listen, believe, back minoritized people when they share their truths, realities, and solutions.

a must listen for Americans

A fabulous lecture series that sheds so much light on race, inequality and other issues in America presented in a matter of fact way that does not shame or judge.

Such a great read

Loved it..I finished within only a handful of sittings. I learned quite a bit more than I expected. Some stuff I already knew about and some I had no idea about (white washing am I right). It's given me some great ideas on what I should read next about issues like this. I wished the book would have touched on stuff like the Tuskegee Experiment, MOVE Bombing, etc. and how we didn't know what had happened/that it did happened until decades after the fact and only by accident. Those would have been great examples. Or how how history in the South is taught different than the North. I had to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the like, but books like To Kill A Mockingbird and The Color Purple was banned. I didn't even know who The Black Panthers or Malcom X was until I had already graduated and was in my first semester at an HBCU. I learned more within the first couple of months about my actual u.s. history at a black university than in my 12 years of schooling and 2 years of community college prior.

Excellent explanation of structural racism

This course, or set of lectures, is an excellent explanation of structural racism. Through the explanation of structural racism by Candice White Smith, critical race theory becomes self-explanatory, a topic which is highly misunderstood in the United States today. To reconcile with the racial problems that we face today in this country, knowledge of the way racism within the United States originated and has been reinforced by laws and government programs on state and federal levels must become common knowledge. One cannot fix the problem until one understands it. Racism is deeply ingrained in our nation and permeates our politics in overt ways, especially today. Let’s try to create a truly democratic and inclusive society here in our country.

Optimistic, Pro-Democracy Centrist Lectures

if anything, this teacher errs on the side of extreme caution, sticking to well-established and undisputed facts like they were glue or from assuming her audience has a fragile faith in democracy. If you want your history pro-US, non-partisan, and theory-lite yet still race conscious, this is a safe bet for you. Mostly a 101 class, not for the advanced students. A lovely, sincere teacher who believes in hope.

Must read to further understand wokeness

When the political and legal decisions seem crazy and America seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, this book helps explain what is going on. I totally disagreed with most of her conclusions, and I regret this is what our young people are being taught in schools.

Great ideas, less great argument.

As a 22 year old white male, this set of lectures gave me a wonderful perspective that was important for my ever-developing political opinion. I am typically a more right-leaning voter, but I was happy to hear the other side from a social scientist and not from the often skewed social media sources.

That being said, the anecdotal approach to describing the left side and the history of race and policy had me struggling not to point out borderline straw man fallacies. I was hoping to hear some more pure political theory from the past few decades, supported by anecdotes, rather than anecdotes supported by political theory.

As far as the narration, I of course realize that politics and racism are controversial topics which incite emotion and opinions. However, from the intonation of Smith's narration, I could definitely tell which opinions she thought were ridiculous, which were stable, and which were her own. I would have loved a more neutral stance, but then again, that apparently reflects my own stance in the politcal realm.

Overall, a great and informed piece of work!! Thanks!