Omekongo Dibinga, Lies About Black People
From the Black Lives Matter movement to the health and economic disparities exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have been forced to reckon with our country’s fraught history – and present – of racial bias and inequality. Now that we have scratched the surface on courageous conversations about race, many are wondering: what is the next step towards healing and justice? SIS Professor Omekongo Dibinga’s new book Lies About Black People: How to Combat Racist Stereotypes and Why it Matters is designed for anyone who wants to examine their own biases and behaviors with a deeper critical lens in order to take action, make change, and engage positively in the fight for racial equality.
Tackling themes including affirmative action, racial profiling, criminal justice, socioeconomics and more, Lies About Black People dissects tropes like the “Black buck” stereotype, Black people being unable to swim and Black people not feeling pain, exposing the roots and reasons for their proliferation as well as the actual truths that they obscure and the atrocities that they’ve been used to justify for centuries.
Omekongo demonstrates how the lies told about Black people have not only impacted the Black community but also all Americans, and looks at lies told through America’s powerful media industry, school textbooks and more, while also giving powerful examples of what we can do to challenge those lies in our homes, schools, places of worship and workplaces.
Honest and welcoming, Lies About Black People features interviews with everyday people on their own antiracist journeys, original poetry, a mini-glossary of terms for readers just starting out on their antiracism and pro-equity journey and spaces for written reflection and action-planning enables readers to write their ideas right as they think of them.
was published in 2023 by Globe Pequot / Prometheus.