Review: Race and Reckoning: From Founding Fathers to Today’s Disruptors – Ellis Cose

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Ranging from chattel slavery, through the New Deal to the Covid pandemic, a groundbreaking work that investigates how pivotal decisions have established and perpetuated discriminatory practices, even as the rise of disinformation and other modern advertising techniques have plunged democracy into an ever-deepening crisis.

Throughout our nation’s history, numerous racialized decisions have solidified the fates of generations of citizens of color. Some of the earliest involved race-based slavery, the removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands, and the exclusion of most Asians. More have proliferated over time. While America grew into a superpower in the twentieth century, it continued to discriminate against people of color—both soldiers who served overseas and civilians on the home front, herding Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II and denying Black citizens their right to vote.

American Politicians have waxed eloquently and endlessly about bettering the nation. But bettering it for whom? journalist and cultural commentator Ellis Cose asks. From Reconstruction to the New Deal to the unceasing fight for civil rights, Cose reveals how the hopes of many Americans for a true multicultural democracy have been repeatedly frustrated by white nationalists skilled at weaponizing racial anxieties of other whites.

In Race and Reckoning Cose dissects chapter-by-chapter how America’s overall narrative breeds racial resentment rooted in conjecture over fact. Through rigorous research and with astute detail, Cose uncovers how, at countless points in history, America’s leaders have upheld a narrative of American greatness rooted in racism, as he offers a hopeful yet clear-eyed vision of American possibility.

It is a story grounded in history, and it demolishes the myths that ultimately allowed one of the most ill-prepared, unethical, vindictive, and truth-challenged politicians in history to position himself as America’s savior by tapping into the nation’s darkest tendencies.

As much as they try, one thing this country can not do is rewrite history, thanks to folks like Ellis Cose. Mr. Cose writes about race and brings receipts through rigorous research and detail in each chapter. While not a long book, each chapter packs a punch and gets down to business. For example, in Chapter 11, Selling Soap, Falsehoods and Potential Presidents, need I say more?

I have found in all of his work a person who writes not only about race but also offers thoughts on ways to make a clear and concise difference. He also speaks about all targeted groups in this country, targeted because of the lies of white supremacy.

I highly recommend this well-written book for those who want to understand this moment in history and hopefully have folks refute the “the way it was/is” that justifies aberrant acts against people they don’t like.

Reviewed by: Linda C

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