Since the latest upsurge in Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd, we’ve been hit with a deluge of racial justice reading lists. Political education on race is sorely needed, but many people on the Left are rightly disappointed by most of the books white people are being implored to read. A mixture of human resources–speak, self-help, and psychobabble seems to be the only framework available to talk about racism in the United States.

Though written before the Floyd protests, Calvin Baker’s A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America comes at a time of peak interest in the topic. The central premise of the book is one most of us can agree with: substantive integration is needed more than abstract gestures toward “multiculturalism” or “diversity.”

I expected to find in this book an elucidation of what such integration would look like in the United States and how we could get there. Unfortunately, in this task, the book falls flat. I can’t say I recommend it for your racial justice reading list.