This autobiographical volume will foster a deeper understanding of racism, discrimination, and inequality in all its subtleties. Through storytelling, framed within the life journey of a South African sociologist of Indian ancestry, this book examines how marginalized communities lived with, fought, and braved racial engineering under apartheid. Moodley shares her experiences of living, studying, and teaching race, ethnicity, identity, nationalism, and critical multiculturalism in five countries: South Africa, the United States, Germany, Egypt, and Canada. Everyday experiences are blended with academic interpretations, so readers gain insights from what is in part memoir and in other parts educational lessons drawn from numerous microexperiences. Subjects range from indentured labor to expropriation, the influences of Gandhi and Mandela, antisemitism in Europe to welfare colonialism in Canada, sectarianism in the Middle East to strategies for combatting bigotry in America.


Book Features:




Presents autobiographical material buttressed by strong theoretically driven social science research findings.
Connects personal, cultural, and political landscapes to promote a global political literacy.
Sketches subjects such as indigeneity (First Nations in Canada), memorialization in Germany (Holocaust), and sectarianism in the Middle East.
Assesses the impact of role models and leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
Examines how past injustices can be addressed both symbolically and materially.

Afterword by: Sonia Nieto
Series edited by: James A. Banks