In laying out all of the governmental ways residential segregation has been carried out up to the present day, Richard Rothstein makes the case for reparations in words white people can understand (partly by not using the word “reparations”). Color of Law patiently takes apart a number of white mainstream misconceptions, assumptions, & myths about the history of urban segregation & housing discrimination. While I had some idea of the history Rothstein covers in Color of Law, I have to say I was surprised by a few things, or at least at the scale at which they took place. I was surprised at the degree to which the urban geography of places so familiar to me, such as the SF Bay Area, were created by State, Local, & Federal government efforts to discriminate against Black people. While I knew that the Federal Government favored suburbs with the interstate highway system & encouraged them in other ways, I was surprised at how completely suburbanization was created & directed by the Federal Government. Finally, I was most surprised at the level & consistency of mob violence faced by Black families attempting to integrate white neighborhoods & suburbs. I knew about burning crosses & harassment campaigns directed against some people, but I didn’t know that Black people moving into white neighborhoods were & are commonly besieged by enraged white mobs who subjecting them to bombings, shootings, & arsons, even into the present day. I guess that’s my privilege. The endnotes & FAQs were worth reading. Rothstein’s answer to the question about black people not wanting to live in integrated communities with potentially white racist neighbors was partly convincing to me (“African Americans’ avoidance of integration cannot be considered a free choice”), but also felt “off” (“To achieve an integrated society, African Americans too must take greater risks”). Overall a worthwhile read.