Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?: 25 Arguments That Won’t Go Away
by Keith Boykin

Some arguments about race refuse to go away. It’s time, once and for all, to shatter them.

The most toxic racial arguments share one of five traits. They try to erase Black history, prioritize white victimhood, deny Black oppression, promote myths of Black inferiority, or rebrand racism as something else entirely. They’re all designed to distract society from racial justice, but now we have the tools to debunk them.

With a mixture of personal experience, reportage, and extensive research, Keith Boykin takes a wrecking ball to twenty-five of the most widespread deceptions about race, such as:

• The Civil War was about states’ rights, not slavery
• Affirmative action is reverse discrimination
• Critical Race Theory is indoctrinating children to hate one another

and shows us how to refute lies, myths, and misinformation with history, knowledge, and truth.

5 out of 5 fairies

This is a brilliant, well-written, well-organized book. Boykin does an amazing job of tackling some of the biggest things you’ll hear touted by conservatives, and gives excellent arguments debunking them. There’s a lot of information within these pages, and it’s easily accessible even if you don’t have a history background or if you don’t consider yourself big on politics. I can’t say I’m the most articulate person when it comes to debating, but I feel like this book has given me some excellent points I can bring up in conversation, and feel confident doing so. If I could, I’d have everyone who doesn’t understand why race is such an important factor read this book. It might just help change some minds and bring enlightenment with it.

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