Keith Boykin
Keith Boykin (he/him) is a CNN political commentator, New York Times best-selling author, and a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. He is a co-founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition. He was a co-host of the BET Networks talk show “My Two Cents,” starred on the Showtime reality television series “American Candidate,” was an associate producer of the film “Dirty Laundry,” and he has appeared on many other TV shows, including BET’s “Being Mary Jane.”
Race Against Time examines the Cold Civil War that has engulfed the nation. After a deadly pandemic, shocking incidents of police brutality, a racial justice crisis, and the fall of a dangerous demagogue, America remains more divided than at any time in decades.
With the familiarity of personal experience and the acuity of historical insight, Boykin urges us to fight racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia, and save the union, not just by making Black lives matter, but by making Black lives equal.
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I’m a stereotypical Virgo, so my writing space is usually very neat and organized. All I keep on my desk are a globe, an antique typewriter, a lamp, a laptop, and a small, framed photo from the White House. As you can see in the second picture, even when I was a kid in high school, I always kept my desk clean at home.
Currently reading several books, including Queer Love in Color by Jamal Jordan, How The Word Is Passed by Clint Smith, The Second by Carol Anderson, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, Hatchet Man by Elie Honig, Bevelations by Bevy Smith and Fear of a Muslim Planet by Arsalan Iftikhar.
I would love to have lunch with James Baldwin. He was born in Harlem Hospital and lived just a few blocks from where I live now. He was an author, a public speaker, and an incisive social commentator at a time when there were very few visible Black gay men in public.
My best friend runs a literary foundation, so I wouldn’t recommend any old book to him. The last book I recommended to him was The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr., which may now be my favorite novel of all time. One of the reasons I love this book so much is because it tells a story that I always wanted to write myself.
My favorite person to follow on Instagram is Brence Pernell (@dentrelliswell), who is a lawyer, writer, professor and photographer. His photographs on Instagram are colorful and exquisite. My favorite person to follow on Twitter is Cori Bush (@coribush). She’s a progressive member of Congress who represents my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and she’s shaking things up in Washington
A Cold Civil War has engulfed the nation.
After a deadly pandemic, shocking incidents of police brutality, a racial justice crisis, and the fall of a dangerous demagogue, America remains more divided than at any time in decades. At the heart of this national crisis is the fear of a darkening America—a country in which there is no longer a predominant white majority.
As the Republican Party has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, its leaders have incited white Americans in a last-ditch race against time to stop the advance of a new, multiracial emerging majority. Keith Boykin, long time political commentator, has watched this white resentment consume the GOP over the course of a life in politics, activism, and journalism. He has also observed the divisions among Democrats, as white progressives have postponed demands for full racial equity, while Black voters have often been too forgiving of party leaders who have failed to deliver. America can no longer avoid its long overdue reckoning with the past, Boykin argues. With the familiarity of personal experience and the acuity of historical insight, Boykin urges us to fight racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia, and save the union, not just by making Black lives matter, but by making Black lives equal.