For the vast majority of human existence we did without the idea of race. Since its inception a mere few hundred years ago, and despite the voluminous documentation of the problems associated with living within the racial worldview, we have come to act as if race is something we cannot live without. The Arc of a Bad Idea: Understanding and Transcending Race presents a penetrating, provocative, and promising analysis of and alternative to the hegemonic racial worldview. How race came about, how it evolved into a natural-seeming aspect of human identity, and how racialization, as a habit of the mind, can be broken is presented through the unique and corrective framing of race as a time-bound (versus eternal) concept, the lifespan of which is traceable and the demise of which is predictable. The narratives of individuals who do not subscribe to racial identity despite be ascribed to the black/African American racial category are presented as clear and compelling illustrations of how a non-racial identity and worldview is possible and arguably preferable to the status quo. Our view of and approach to race (in theory, pedagogy, and policy) is so firmly ensconced in a sense of it as inescapable and indispensible that we are in effect shackled to the lethal absurdity we seek to escape. Theorist, teachers, policy-makers and anyone who seeks a transformative perspective on race and racial identity will be challenged, enriched, and empowered by this refreshing treatment of one of our most confounding and consequential dilemmas. Presents a penetrating, provocative, and promising alternative to the hegemonic racial worldview. Advance Praise for The Arc of a Bad Idea:Understanding and Transcending Race "In The Arc of a BadIdea , Carlos Hoyt attacks deeply ingrained notions of race, racialidentification, and racial politics. Attentive to the many ways in which 'race'matters, often to the detriment of racial minorities, particularly blacks, Hoytattacks conventional understandings of race consciousness in a radical,informed, thoughtful way." Randall Kennedy, JD, Michael R. KleinProfessor of Law, Harvard Law School "CarlosHoyt takes direct aim at the insidious ways we cling to race, raising crucialquestions about the Racial Identity Development Theory paradigm that governsthe pedagogy of race, and forces us to consider that there is another,profoundly more logical and liberatory way to think about human difference andpersonal identity. Whilevigorously upholding and advocating for the need to continue the fight againstracism in all its forms, Hoyt argues cogently that vanquishing racism requiresrelinquishing the false consciousness of biological race, and presents, throughthe narratives of individuals who eschew race as a meaningful aspect ofidentity, and through painstaking analysis of the evolution of the concept ofrace, compelling evidence that this is not only possible, but underway. Race is our geocentric solar system, race is our flat earth,race is our Salem, race is the great blunder and shame of our age. Carlos Hoytshows us the way out of the madness of race and into a critical consciousnessthat rejects the biological falsehood that has held us in thrall for the lastnearly three hundred years." RainierSpencer, PhD, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Associate Vice President forthe Office of Diversity Initiatives, and Chief Diversity Officer, University ofNevada, Las Vegas "Is there a way to discuss race without,counter-productively, further strengthening its pernicious hold on Americanthought and action? Hoyt believes so, and offers a roadmap for transcendingrace , an altogether subtler destination than where the color-blind crowdwould take us. No serious readers will finish this book with the certaintiesthey brought to it. In particular, readers with the conviction that identity politicsis America's way forward will benefit by hitting the pause button for a fewhours. Viewing our current convictions about race from a fresh perspectivewon't hurt; it might help." Kenneth Prewitt, PhD, MA, Carnegie Professor of PublicAffairs and the Vice-President for Global Centers, Columbia University;Director, Census Bureau (1998-2000) "Perhaps not since Ashley Montagu'srevolutionary, Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942),has a more important work on the pernicious aspects of race and racializationbeen written. The Arc of a Bad Idea, Understanding and Transcending Race ,upends and debunks our conventional thinking about race and ending racism. Carlos Hoyt has written a timely andnecessary balm for the wounds caused by centuries of the false notion ofrace--an idea with no empirical or scientific basis--but yet embraced worldwide.While Hoyt is by no means the first to engage in the noble crusade to convincemankind to destroy this harmful mythology, he is perhaps one the few authors tolay out a concise and constructive vision on how we can actually become a society free of racial taxonomi