In essays, poems, and images—from screenshots of social media to archival photographs—Claudia Rankine searches for new pathways into conversations about race and racism. Recalling encounters with white men at airports, personal memories from college, conversations with her white husband, and various other American scenes, she maps how whiteness and white privilege infiltrate and poison everyday life. Rankine looks closely at the moments of tension, of both quiet and obvious violence, always questioning and complicating her own certainties. Inviting readers to sit down at a common table, she models how to pose questions and listen in the pursuit of justice and empathy.
