On Bigotry: Twenty Lessons on How Bigotry Works and What to Do About It

Summary

Twenty lessons in how bigots think, the rhetorical tactics that bigotry uses to justify itself, and what YOU can do to reject bigotry.

Americans like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry. But what if bigotry isn’t a lack of education, but rather a moral code that people live by? What if bigotry is a common code of hate to which no community is immune?

On Bigotry is a field guide for understanding how bigots think and teach others to think, how bigotry disguises itself, how bigotry teaches people to act politically, and, most importantly, what individuals and communities can do about it. This is an essential read for anyone interested in challenging the spread of bigotry in society, regardless of who engages in it and why.

“Nicholas Ensley Mitchell’s timely and compelling work is a clarion call to action and provides a road map to understand and confront the toxicity and corrosive power of bigotry. His eminently readable treatise is based in academic rigor and expertise and is simultaneously full of heart and wit.”—Aaron Ahlquist, Anti-Defamation League, Southern Division