Richard Rothstein is the author “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,” published in May 2017. The Color of Law has received critical acclaim from influential publications such as Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Ta’Nehisi Coates, author and journalist, describes Rothstein as “brilliant,” with “the kind of fine understanding of machinery of government policy as it relates to housing that” he deeply envies.

Rothstein is a former columnist for the New York Times and a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and of the Hass Institute at the University of California- Berkeley.

He is also the author of “Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right” (2008) and “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap” (2004); “The Way We Were? Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement” (1998): “The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement” (co-authored in 2005); and “All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different?’ (co-authored in 2003).

Beyond Buzzwords is a Metro United Way speaker series focused on diversity, equity and inclusion that is designed to provide thoughtful and meaningful discussions about important topics that promote thinking as well as personal and institutional application.