Any discussion of Rethinking Racial Justice should begin by reflecting on Andrew Valls’s moving tribute to his former Morehouse College students and colleagues. In his acknowledgments, Valls reveals, “My students challenged me to show them how some of the rather abstract theories on my syllabi applied to the ‘real world’ and to the concerns of African Americans in particular” (p. ix). Valls’s indebtedness to his tenure at Morehouse highlights the book’s two greatest strengths. The first is his ability to make liberal political thought relevant to some of the most pressing contemporary social justice issues facing blacks in American society. The second is his forceful argument for the preservation of black institutions, neighborhoods, and schools, which he makes by pushing back against the moral imperative for integration. Valls should be proud of his work in Rethinking Racial Justice, because it more than lives up to the challenge set forth by the students of Morehouse College.

Valls explains that the impetus for writing Rethinking Racial Justice was the lack of a “cogent conception of racial justice.” He writes, “We need a renewed sense of urgency about the problems of racial injustice, one that has not existed since the civil rights movement, and we also need a conception of racial justice to guide our thought and action” (p. 10). Valls sets about filling this void by developing a “distinctively liberal approach to the problem of racial inequality” (p. 12). In the first several chapters, he applies his distinctively liberal approach to issues such as reparations, collective memory, and affirmative action. What makes Valls’s approach unique is that he melds liberal political theory with the principles of transitional justice. He notes, “The main argument for measures of transitional justice is that to leave the consequences of the past unaddressed is to (implicitly) condone the past, or at least to fail to repudiate it. Failure to confront the past is, in effect, to leave in place its unjust effects and hence suggests continuity rather than rupture, approval rather than disavowal, continuation rather than transition” (p. 30). According to Valls, the United States underwent a regime change during the civil rights movement with little to no redress for the wrongs of the past regime. A strength of Rethinking Racial Justice is its compelling argument that proper redress should not only serve as the basis of a case for reparations but also highlights the need for a collective grappling with the past and a justice-based defense of affirmative action.

Although the demand for reparations, collective memory, and affirmative action may appear to be preconditions for the full integration of black Americans into white society, Valls, in the remaining chapters of the book, draws a different conclusion. Instead, he trains his attention on vanquishing the moral imperative for integration that is often advocated by other liberal theorists. The strength of Valls’s arguments hinges on his ability to focus on the structural causes of social justice issues, such as residential segregation, the mass incarceration of black Americans, and the preponderance of failing schools in black neighborhoods. By focusing on the structural causes of these issues, Valls strips away the false dichotomy undergirding moral arguments for integration. For instance, he objects to mobility programs that offer individuals residing in hyper-segregated and deeply impoverished black neighborhoods a choice to move to less poor neighborhoods with better schools. As Valls notes, “Given this choice, it is not surprising that many volunteer. But this set of options is inherently coercive and unjustly so” (p. 141). Because of his liberal commitments, Valls does not support these deconcentration programs precisely because they are coercive. To make this point he argues that “we should interpret ‘involuntarily’ broadly, to include not only policies that force people to move, but also those that offer moving as a ‘choice,’ when the alternatives are so skewed that the decision to move cannot plausibly be seen as voluntary” (p. 142). To be clear, Valls never argues against integration altogether. Rather, he thinks initiatives that promote integration should be just one approach among others designed to transform underlying structural inequities. Valls is to be commended for his ability to forcefully and persuasively defend black institutions, neighborhoods, and schools from a distinctively liberal approach.

Despite the many strengths of Rethinking Racial Justice, the book does have a few shortcomings. For starters, the title is a bit of a misnomer. That is, readers who are looking to engage in a wide-ranging discussion of racial justice will be disappointed that Valls is primarily concerned with analyzing racial justice only as it pertains to black Americans (something he fully acknowledges). More importantly, though, is the lack of consistency in Valls’s voice. For instance, in those chapters in which Valls is resisting the moral imperative for integration, he carefully and forcefully argues for his positions. In contrast, his chapters on collective memory and mass incarceration are written passively and draw tepid conclusions. Consequently, these chapters belie the exigency Valls claims is necessary for our contemporary moment. This is exemplified by Valls’s own summation of the chapter on collective memory: “I have generally avoided drawing hard-and-fast conclusions about the requirements of justice in this chapter. Instead, my concern has been to insist that justice requires some confrontation with the past and some acknowledgment of it, in order to create an appropriate collective memory that affirms the civic and moral equality of all” (p. 74). It is hard to see how the demand for an urgent and cogent conception of racial justice merely requires “some” confrontation with and acknowledgment of the past, yet does not provide recommendations to alleviate the injustice it bequeaths to us today.

Likewise, Valls acknowledges that readers may find the normative conclusions he draws in his chapter on criminal justice to be “too limited.” After this admission, however, he dedicates the chapter’s last paragraph to a quick dismissal of the prison abolition movement, writing, “Although I agree with much of the abolition movement’s assessment of the criminal justice system as it operates today, I find its prescription unpersuasive.” He adds, “Alternatives to incarceration should certainly be expanded. Yet without a plausible alternative to prisons for even the most serious offenders, calling for abolition is unrealistic” (p. 175). This is an oversimplification of the highly nuanced position adopted by thinkers in the prison abolition movement. One wishes that Valls would have treated the arguments and policy prescriptions of the prison abolition movement with the same thoughtfulness and care that he extends to liberal integrationists. By doing so, students of Morehouse College—and any reader of this book—would have greatly benefited from knowing how a robust and distinctively liberal approach either coheres or significantly departs from the abolition movement. Thus, Valls misses an opportunity to engage advocates of a contemporary movement that is compelling and extremely relevant to many young black Americans.

Valls’s discussion of gentrification is another disappointingly truncated engagement with an important facet of contemporary racial justice. After compellingly arguing against the involuntary nature of deconcentration initiatives, Valls’s liberal argument seems to fold in on itself when he turns to gentrification. He acknowledges that, not unlike deconcentration initiatives, “gentrification can create its own coercive pressures that essentially force urban residents to move” (p. 149). He then proposes some policy solutions that could possibly stem the tide of full-scale displacement of black Americans. However, he eventually capitulates, admitting that a distinctively liberal framework cannot protect black communities from the coercive forces of gentrification. “This does pose a challenge: how do we protect the character of black neighborhoods while also protecting the freedom of their residents to move out and the freedom of others to move in?” He continues, “There is an irresolvable tension in any view that values both individual autonomy and also communities of affinity. Public policy cannot preserve the character of communities indefinitely, but it can slow the pace of change and protect residents from some of the effects of that change” (p. 150). Valls is correct—perhaps there is no silver bullet that can be offered up by a distinctively liberal approach to the issue of gentrification. With this admission, however, Valls demonstrates the severe limitations of a liberal framework in the quest for an urgent and cogent conception of racial justice.

Ultimately, Rethinking Racial Justice offers an insightful and valuable contribution to contemporary political theory. Valls breathes life into political liberalism, which despite its shortcomings, still has much to offer those interested in pursuing racial equality. Even if one does not agree with Valls’s perspective on all matters, readers will gain tremendously from his masterful overview and incisive analysis of every subject covered in the book.