Harvard Book Store Presents:

Tricia Rose

presenting

Metaracism:
How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives
—And How We Break Free

In conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Harvard Book Store welcomes TRICIA ROSE— Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University—for a discussion of her new book Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—And How We Break Free. She will be joined in conversation by HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR—founding Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

Ticketing

There are two ticket options for this event.

Book Included: Admission for one and a signed copy of Metaracism.

Admission Only: Admission for one.

About Metaracism

In recent years, condemnations of racism in America have echoed from the streets to corporate boardrooms. At the same time, politicians and commentators fiercely debate racism’s very existence. And so, our conversations about racial inequalities remain muddled.

In Metaracism, pioneering scholar Tricia Rose cuts through the noise with a bracing and invaluable new account of what systemic racism actually is, how it works, and how we can fight back. She reveals how—from housing to education to criminal justice—an array of policies and practices connect and interact to produce an even more devastating “metaracism” far worse than the sum of its parts. While these systemic connections can be difficult to see—and are often portrayed as “color-blind”—again and again they function to disproportionately contain, exploit, and punish Black people.

By helping us to comprehend systemic racism’s inner workings and destructive impacts, Metaracism shows us also how to break free—and how to create a more just America for us all.

Praise for Metaracism

“Tricia Rose is a brilliant scholar who has been on the cutting edge of every concept she’s touched. I read everything she writes, and always learn from her insights and analyses.” —Imani Perry, National Book Award–winning author of South to America

“This book will be the most definitive and comprehensive treatment of systemic racism we have from the academy for the larger culture in America! There is simply no one better equipped to write this magisterial text than Tricia Rose! She brings together the best of sociological analysis, cultural criticism, and brilliant prose!” —Cornel West, New York Times bestselling author of Democracy Matters

“Tricia Rose is one of our most powerful and profound public intellectuals. Her work on systemic racism is groundbreaking in its ability to elucidate the myriad ways in which we are still blind to how race operates under the surface of every American encounter. This book will become essential reading for anyone seriously interested in understanding the ways racism is seamlessly reproduced in this culture.” —Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop

“Tricia Rose has long set the bar for what it means to be a leading public intellectual. Brilliant, astute, and fearless, she has taken on the difficult task of demystifying ‘systemic racism,’ from a catchphrase that merely asserts that racial disparities are the result of hidden forces, to explaining exactly how systemic racism works in the United States. With great clarity and precision, she moves beyond the shocking story, the point of trauma, or the dizzying statistics to expose the system as a whole, apprehending its operations by revealing each part, policy, and practice and the myriad ways they conjoin. In the face of relentless attacks on the mere mention of racism, and the nonsense spewing from the new ‘anti-racism industry,’ Metaracism offers the clear-eyed analysis we urgently need.” —Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

Mask Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films. The Black Church (PBS) andFrederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations. In January 2024, Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, returned for its tenth season on PBS. His most recent history series for PBS, Gospel, premiered in February 2024.

Photo credit: Peter Simon

Tricia Rose

Tricia Rose is Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. The author of three books, including the foundational, award-winning scholarly analysis of hip hop and its sequel, The Hip Hop Wars, Rose has received fellowships from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and her research has been funded by the Mellon and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations.

Photo Credit: OJ Slaughter