Brandi Collins-Dexter at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes BRANDI COLLINS-DEXTER, former Senior Campaign Director at Color Of Change, for a discussion of her new book Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future. She will be joined in conversation by DEBORAH DOUGLAS, co-editor in chief of The Emancipator.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About Black Skinhead

In Black Skinhead, Brandi Collins-Dexter, former Senior Campaign Director for Color Of Change, explores the fragile alliance between Black voters and the Democratic party. Through sharp, timely essays that span the political, cultural, and personal, Collins-Dexter reveals decades of simmering disaffection in Black America, told as much through voter statistics as it is through music, film, sports, and the baffling mind of Kanye West.

While Black Skinhead is an outward look at Black votership and electoral politics, it is also a funny, deeply personal, and introspective look at Black culture and identity, ultimately revealing a Black America that has become deeply disillusioned with the failed promises of its country.

Praise for Black Skinhead

“How can the most reliable Democratic voters be the most dissatisfied with the Democratic Party? Why does the political class obsess over the shifting loyalties of white voters but ignore Black voters who are experiencing the same doubts? To explain why―and what to do about it―Brandi Collins-Dexter seamlessly weaves political analysis with cultural criticism, historical perspectives with deeply personal stories. She not only shows us what Black voters are yearning for, she tells us what will happen if we do not pay attention.” ―Heather McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us

"Brandi Collins-Dexter has written the book I wanted to read about Black politics in America not just in the wake of Donald Trump's presidency, but after the elections of Barack Obama and Joe Biden failed to deliver material results for Black people. With nuance, pathos, and an unflinching honesty, Collins-Dexter carefully explores the "unsatisfied" and "unsettled" relationship between the Democratic Party and the Black voters (and would-be voters) it takes for granted. She seamlessly and deftly weaves between what she's learned from thinking partners as different as Kanye West, his mother Donda West, historian Leah Wright Rigueur, activist Kwame Ture, Black Trump supporters, radio host Charlamagne tha God, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and―most personally―her late, basketball-dribbling father. The essays of Black Skinhead will haunt you, inspire you and make you consider contemporary Black politics in America in profoundly new ways." ―Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, author of The Viral Underclass

“Black Skinhead is the story we need, right now, of how Black civil society is disintegrating―and how we ignore it at our peril. Sharp, witty, poignant and honest, Black Skinhead is a tale of our generation, and points to what we might do to stop ourselves from careening off a cliff of nihilism. In this political age, there is no more important task.” ―Alicia Garza, principal of Black Futures Lab, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, and author of The Purpose of Power