Book Review Transcending Racial Barriers: Toward a Mutual Obligation Approach

One of the most vexing parts of teaching race and ethnic relations is watching students arrive at the conclusion that the problems of race are insurmountable. Emerson and Yancey answer this tension with the innovative, complex and accessible Transcending Racial Barriers: Toward a Mutual Obligation Approach. This book provides a unique, insightful and memorable take on the problem of race by focusing on an under-studied facet of race relations: solutions. Despite persistent and growing evidence that race matters in the post-civil rights age, effective solutions are in short supply, and as the authors argue, mostly because we are in dire need of a shared mandate. The authors aim to adjust the lens through which individuals view current racial dynamics by offering a new approach to racial problem solving called “mutual obligations.” Part I lays out the need for the mutual obligations approach. The authors present a succinct overview of the history of American race inequality, highlighting the rise of white supremacy and the continuation of white privilege despite the removal of direct institutionalized segregation. Solving current racial problems seems nearly impossible because it requires addressing largely unseen forces of indirect institu