"Whatever the 'post' may mean in 'post-racial, it cannot mean that racism belongs to the past." 
Barbara Fields, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life

On Thursday, March 7th, we invite you to join Barbara Fields and Ta-Nehisi Coates in a conversation about inequality, race, and the persistence of the notion that we live in a "post-racial" America.

In their incisive and daring new book Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, a detailed transdisciplinary analysis of how racism has come to operate in America, sisters Karen Fields and Barbara Fields tackle the myth of the "post racial" era. Racecraft's central metaphor is that race functions today similarly to the ways in which witchcraft once operated: formally, society agrees that race may be an illusion and that racism is bad, yet it continues to exert a spell-like influence over us, structuring nearly all of our every day experiences.

Drawing on years of scholarly research, the Fields approach their subject with ingenuity and wit, tracing a narrative analysis through America's history by way of their individual expertise in history and sociology.

Joining Barbara at the CUNY Graduate Center is Atlantic senior editor Ta-Nehisi Coates, who writes about culture, politics, and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and Time, among many other publications.