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On the Matter of Black Lives
In the last 12 months, Professor Jelani Cobb, a staff writer for the New Yorker, has authored three groundbreaking books on race in America. The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker, which he co-authored with David Remnick, came out this fall. It collects many of the most thoughtful writers portraying Black life in America over the last century.
This past summer, he co-edited with Matthew Guariglia, The Essential Kerner Commission Report, which examined and explained the underlying conditions that led to a dozen urban uprisings between 1964 and 1967. Cobb says Republicans used the uprisings as political fodder but ignored the Report’s findings.
Last fall, he wrote The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, where he explores the paradoxes that President Barack Obama’s election raised with regards to race and patriotism, identity and citizenship, and progress and legacy.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Licata: In The Matter of Black Lives, you imply that some people consider race a biological trait rather than a social artifact. A Northwestern University study found that 37 percent of white people and 25 percent of black people believe biology determines race. However, the Human Genome Project found that all humans are 99.9 percent genetically identical.
