In this book, Christopher Lebron draws on political thought, sociology, and American political development scholarship to offer a fresh political theory perspective on the dilemma of racial inequality in the United States. His central questions are straightforward: Why does deep racial inequality persist nearly 50 years after the culmination of the Civil Rights movement when the vast majority of American citizens disavow racism, and what might be done to remedy this situation? He explores what prevents key actors in American politics—citizens and institutions—from working to overcome racial injustice and realize the promise of American democracy.

Lebron maintains that racial inequality fundamentally is a problem of social value: “the fact that blacks do not occupy an equal place in [our society’s] scheme of normative attention and concern” (p. 4). He addresses this problem by discussing the ideas of shame, national character, and democratic perfectionism, and forwarding a theory of “historically evolved, socially embedded power” (p. 10). Like Charles Mills, Lebron highlights “the role of racially inflected power” to comprehend racial injustice (p. 9). He contends, however, that Mills’s use of “white domination” oversimplifies “the increasing complexity of racial subordination,” particularly how “the characterological makeup of members of the polity is shaped under the influence of racial power” (pp. 10, 52).

The author draws on ideas from Michel Foucault, John Gaventa, social dominance theory, and the theory of institutional path dependency to develop his theory of power. He explains that asymmetrical power relations between different racialized groups—for example, whites and blacks—shape more than the structure of opportunities that people face; they also shape “the norms that citizens orient themselves toward” and adopt in relation to the way they are positioned in “the racial scheme” (p. 38). “Historically evolved power,” Lebron says, “is the phenomenon of historically patterned group dominance founded upon racism embodied in path-dependent institutions resulting in robust contemporary inequality that no longer depends on explicit racism” (p. 45). In the United States, white Americans predominantly have shaped governing norms and institutions, and these norms and institutions have been bequeathed to subsequent generations. He elaborates this point through case studies of the development of welfare and criminal justice policies.

Lebron’s critique of Mills’s theory of white domination is especially salient in the post—Civil Rights era, with racial inequality persisting even as prevailing norms and institutions affirm the equal moral worth of all persons regardless of “race.” While blatant white racial domination has been overcome, existing institutions still bear the legacy of white racism; and Americans—especially white Americans—have not yet fully overturned the inherited inequalities, including the problem of social value—the ways in which black persons are not recognized adequately as possessing equal worth (pp. 95, 124, 130, 139).

The author’s understanding of power as socially embedded offers a critical dimension to his democratic perfectionism, which rests on the idea that citizens can develop better moral habits. Socially embedded power refers to social asymmetries and how they “affect our sense of self and others such that those better positioned tend to hold beliefs and attitudes that motivate a lack of normative concern for the systematically disadvantaged, while those worse positioned are burdened in developing a full sense of being an equal democratic self” (p. 71). This means that systemic racial inequality undermines the moral agency of both white and black Americans, in different ways (p. 104).

Lebron links these considerations to democratic perfectionism through notions of “shame” and “national character.” Shame is the appropriate response to ongoing racial inequality because it prompts us to face our moral failings and “motivates us to be better than we are” in accordance with our avowed moral principles (p. 42). He suggests that character, which refers to “a general pattern of attitudes” and beliefs with “normative importance,” can be applied to institutions and nations as well as to individuals (pp. 12, 42, 123–25). Thus, persisting racial inequality in the face of a national affirmation of equality is partly a consequence of “bad national character,” manifest when a nation’s “institutions fail to act with integrity” (pp. 123, 142).

Here, Lebron’s theory highlights the role of cultural politics in racial justice struggles. For instance, racial justice—oriented cultural products, such as The Boondocks TV series (originated 2005), can nudge members of the polity to face the racial problem of social value (pp. 14, 143–66). Accordingly, Lebron offers a few practical proposals for “reimaging the democratic project,” including an education proposal designed to prompt people to reflect critically on their ill-founded but “complexly grounded actions and attitudes regarding race” (pp. 145, 24).

The author’s hope is that Americans would experience shame in the face of persisting racial inequality and how it belies their avowed democratic egalitarian commitments. This might lead them to become better democratic selves, motivated to extend due democratic care to all members of society (pp. 146–53). In this regard, Lebron’s democratic perfectionism picks up the thread that is missing from deliberative democratic theories that regard reciprocity and equal respect in public deliberations as the key to overcoming substantive injustices such as racial injustice. The promise of democratic dialogue is undercut when existing practices and institutions marginalize certain groups, such as blacks or Native Americans. In such cases, many members of the polity need to be nudged to rethink their ill-founded attitudes concerning race and inequality.

Overall, The Color of Our Shame creatively rethinks how we might approach racial inequality. It will be of interest to political theorists, critical race theorists, and students of U.S. politics. That said, Lebron’s theory has some limitations. As an approach to racial injustice, his democratic perfectionism runs up against obstacles similar to those faced by deliberative democratic theory. Consider his claim that while it is true that black Americans do not get their fair share of goods, Americans will not remedy this situation unless we confront directly the underlying problem of social value—that blacks are still “not accorded equal moral value” in American society (p. 124). He rightly insists that the distributive injustice that black Americans suffer has been generated historically by their subordinate place in the country’s normative racial scheme. Yet if it is true that most Americans now do affirm the moral equality of blacks, it cannot also be true—at least not in any simple sense—that blacks Americans are still “not accorded equal moral value.” Rather, it must be either that many Americans’ avowed commitments to equal moral value are disingenuous, or that they truly are committed to the equal moral worth of all racial groups but fail to grasp what is needed to affirm fully this moral commitment in the face of ongoing racial inequalities. In either case, such people are unlikely to be as readily shamed into changing their beliefs and actions as Lebron hopes. That said, one of the many strengths of this book is that he is well aware of this difficulty. “What,” he asks, “if the theory fails not because the theory is bad but because the problem is firmly moored in the soul of the nation?” (p. 155).

In addition, given the author’s aim to offer a theory of racial power that befits the increasing complexity of racial subordination, it is unfortunate that he does not wrestle with the current complexities of the U.S. racial formation beyond the simplifying idea of a binary black—white racial dynamic. Relatedly, his concerns about Mills’s notion of white domination may lead him to underestimate the continuing significance of white power and whiteness when he refers broadly to “the typical American citizen” who fails to act consistently to affirm moral equality “in the face of race” (pp. 51, 161). Finally, Lebron’s notion of social value is similar to Max Weber’s notion of status groups, which thinkers like Nancy Fraser and Richard Ford have used to theorize racial inequality. Therefore, he seems to overestimate the novelty of his view that the problem of racism is at root a problem of social value.

These are small quibbles when measured against Lebron’s achievement. He artfully joins Rawlsian-inspired theorizing about social justice with critical race theory’s focus on ongoing racial injustice to illuminate what is needed to develop a distinctly political theory of racial justice. In so doing, he also sheds light on the role of popular culture and national character, or civic culture, in perpetuating the gap between venerable American ideals and deplorable American racial realities. His central question for his fellow Americans might be summarized as follows, “Why don’t you feel more ashamed?”