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Jeff Chang: Who We Be: The Colorization of America

Race. A four-letter word. The greatest social divide in American life, a half-century ago and
today.

During that time, the U.S. has seen the most dramatic demographic and cultural shifts in its history, what can be called the colorization of America. But the same nation that elected its
first Black president on a wave of hope another four-letter word is still plunged into endless culture wars.

How do Americans see race now? How has that changed and not changed over the half-century? After eras framed by words like "multicultural" and "post-racial," do we see each other any more clearly?

From the dream of integration to the reality of colorization, Who We Be remixes comic strips and contemporary art, campus protests and corporate marketing campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Trayvon Martin into a powerful, unusual, and timely cultural history of the idea of racial progress.

In this follow-up to the classic Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff Chang brings fresh energy, style, and sweep to the essential American story.

Jeff Chang has written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music.
His first book, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation,
garnered many honors, including the American Book Award and the Asian
American Literary Award. He edited the book, Total Chaos: The Art and
Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.

His new book, Who We Be: The Colorization of America, will be released on
St. Martin's Press in October 2014. He is currently at work on two other book
projects: Youth (Picador Big Ideas/Small Books series), and a biography of Bruce
Lee (Little, Brown).

Jeff has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and a winner of the North Star
News Prize. He was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who
Are Changing Your World". With H. Samy Alim, he was the 2014 winner of the
St. Clair Drake Teaching Award at Stanford University.

Jeff co-founded CultureStr/ke and ColorLines. He has written for the The Nation,
the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, Foreign Policy,
and Mother Jones, among many others.

He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the
Arts at Stanford University.