Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game.: Pathways to Black Empowerment, Prosperity, and Joy

Instead of waiting for White people to change, Black people must prioritize their own prosperity, power, and self-determination by navigating, challenging, and exiting racist systems—a radical argument from a Harvard behavioral scientist.

It’s time to face an inconvenient truth: our current approach to fighting racism is just not working. For a brief moment following the murder of George Floyd, it seemed as though the country had finally acknowledged the destructive legacy of slavery and White supremacy, and had committed to putting things right. Now, a horde of prominent voices—many of whom professed to be antiracist allies—are pulling back, cutting support, and defunding programs that sought to level the playing field.

Harvard psychologist Robert Livingston contends that racism operates like an addiction for so many White people: hard to admit, and even harder to quit. Given their unwillingness to kick the habit, where does this leave Black people? In this provocative book, Livingston has flipped the script, asking: How can Black people attain prosperity and peace of mind despite the enduring presence of racism? Livingston reveals three paths:

• Play the game, or find ways to work within mainstream, predominantly White systems without sacrificing your identity or dignity. Think of Kenneth Chenault, a “tempered radical” who rose through the ranks to become the first Black CEO of American Express.
• Change the game, or challenge the status quo in an effort to upend White supremacy—like Colin Kaepernick, whose idealism cost him his football career but made him an icon.
• Leave the game, or turn away from White environments to carve out spaces where Black people can flourish—from HBCUs to entrepreneurship to the creation of ethnic enclaves, like the all-Black, middle-class neighborhood where Livingston himself grew up.

Drawing on social science, his own experiences, and interviews with trailblazing Black leaders and luminaries, Livingston reveals the contours of these oft overlapping paths for effectively navigating, mitigating, and circumventing White supremacy. Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game. is a bold, groundbreaking proposition that empowers readers to make the leap from being played to creating their own game plan.