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The award-winning book that has spurred 20 years of frank, thoughtful, wrenching, constructive conversations about race across the U.S. and from Great Britain to Australia to South Africa to Bermuda and back.

The first of its kind...the best of its kind...BACK AGAIN!

(Southern Illinois University Press 2008 2d edition)

PURCHASE NOW

In this invigorating, shocking, and inspiring book, thirty of America's most talented writers step from behind the curtain of objectivity to turn the race spotlight on themselves.

Instead of tiptoeing around the subject, they bare their souls and tell the truth in essays never published before.

WHEN RACE BECOMES REAL is the first book to reveal what it really means to be black--and to be white--in the twenty-first century. The result is riveting.

LISTEN to National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates interview editor Bernestine Singley to find out why she did this book.

AWARDS & KUDOS

Outstanding Academic Title 2004

Outstanding Book Award 2003

Top of the List Editors' Choice 2002

Best Nonfiction 2002

See award details below...

CRITICS UNANIMOUSLY AGREE

To HEAR what caused the following rave reviews, CLICK any link below and LISTEN to essays from WHEN RACE BECOMES REAL read by the folks who wrote them.

"A searing collection . . . All the essays are first-rate."
—Washington Post


“Fertile with inside stories, Singley has assembled… a collection of depositions on [race] from black and white writers."
–Newsday

Corn silk blonde, blue-eyed novelist Susan Straight swears that her three black daughters love singing "Country Music"

"Rich in individual insights."
—Booklist


"When Race Becomes Real goes deeper than most."
—Louisville Courier-Journal

UK history Professor Kimberly Springer almost got her black butt beat in the US for "Talking White"

"A mesmerizing book....Refreshingly honest."
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel


"This book captures plenty."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In "Black and White," University of Texas journalism Professor Robert Jensen holds his white feet to the fire when he's uneasy sharing space with a black other

"Gripping. . . . one of the most essential commentaries on race and identity to date."
—Black Issues Book Review


"Powerful, raw reading."
—Austin American-Statesman

Pulitzer Prize winner and journalism icon Les Payne paints a tale of transformation in "The Night I Stopped Being a Negro"

"They keep it real."
—The Hartford Courant


"A compelling and inspiring collection."
-Teaching Tolerance Magazine

New York Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Angier ain't got a lot of black friends now, but once upon a time she had her "Central Park Samaritan"

“Distinguished writers…bare their souls…in a rare book that ought to be in every home and library in the country."
–Choice Magazine


"More than an eye-opening and intriguing read."
—Lee Stringer, author of GRAND CENTRAL WINTER and SLEEPAWAY SCHOOL


"The voices are elevating, the writing superb."
—Mary Kay Blakely, author of AMERICAN MOM: Motherhood, Politics and Humble Pie

Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts testifies about the way race can make you "Crazy Sometimes"

"This powerful book—entertaining, arresting—will give you plenty to want to defend and protect."
—Al Young, poet/novelist/essayist


"Highly readable and extremely important."
—Mimi Abramovitz, author of REGULATING THE LIVES OF WOMEN: Social Welfare Policy From Colonial Times To the Present

2004 OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE

(Choice Magazine:
Current Reviews for Academic Libraries)

2003 OUTSTANDING BOOK AWARD

(Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America)

2002 TOP OF THE LIST EDITORS' CHOICE

(Booklist)

"A COMPELLING AND INSPIRING COLLECTION."

(Teaching Tolerance)

BEST NONFICTION OF 2002

(Black Issues Book Review)



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