Lewis explains how the curriculum, both expressed and hidden, conveys many racial lessons. While teachers and other school community members verbally deny the salience of race, she illustrates how it does influence the way they understand the world, interact with each other, and teach children. This eye-opening text is important reading for educators, parents, and scholars alike.

New Insights into How Race Gets Constructed by Schools   July 8, 2003

Amanda Lewis' studies of schools is also part of the larger theoretical project of understanding race relations in America. She argues, in the manner of Bobo, Feagin, and Bonilla-Silva, that racism in America has not disappeared but has assumed new, more subtle forms.


Extraordinary book on race and contemporary schooling   June 23, 2003
  12 out of 13 found this review helpful

This book is truly amazing. It deals with a controversial topic in a careful but thought-provoking manner. Having taught in urban and suburban schools for twenty years I can relate to many of the stories that she tells about the inability of teachers, school administrators, and parents to deal effectively with the elephant in the room, race. As she points out in her conclusion we as teachers and Americans cannot "merely close our eyes and try by sheer force of imagination to will ourselves into a color-blind world." In this very readable and well-written book the author reminds us that as teachers we owe it to our students (not just our black and hispanic students) to help them understand how race matters. It is only through direct and honest dialogue that our students will be better prepared to make sure race matters less in the future.